Stee1 & Sw0rds
by Crysina
Summary: Witness the humble beginnings of a guild in the making. Tag along with a wonderful band of misfits as they try to survive. Watch them live, cry, battle, and celebrate in this world that is all things but gentle. Tragedy surely awaits when death is looming in every corner and the more someone has, the more they have to lose. (Newest Update: Reminiscing) (Updates every Sunday.)
1. Chapter 1 - Welcome to Sword Art Online

Author's Note:

I want it to be known this is a republish and continuation of a story I was writing of the same name. I stopped updating a little over year ago but now I'm back and plan to continue where my story left off. The few readers that faved me are probably gone but I hope my story appeals to more people this time around as I will be republishing the chapters I've made in the past with better writing overall and I will be continuing well past the last chapter I updated a year ago.

So kick back and enjoy Stee1 & Sw0rds RE-debut!

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><p><span><strong>Chapter 1.- Welcome to Sword Art Online<strong>

**November-****6th-2022**

**Alshep**

Finally, it is finally here. Sword Art Online. The pinnacle of VR gaming. I stood in line for a good seven hours just to wait for the damn thing to launch. But I finally have my copy and was standing at register ready to pay for it.

"That'll be six thousand five hundred yen please," says the cashier.

More than willing I hand over the money. This game is going to be the best thing in years to come. Complete immersion. The acclaimed –full dive- is finally possible. All thanks to a nifty piece of tech called NerveGear. This thing actually taps into your brain and feeds it the whole game. It's supposed to work by interacting with your brainwaves. This way the piece of hardware is able to stimulate your senses. All five of them.

The amazing technology works hard to make you feel as if you were in the game. You move like in the real world, see, touch and feel. It's…it's just like real life. Except for not feeling pain, which is good of course. Thanks to a friend of mine I was able to play Sword Art Online's beta for a day. He got too excited and into the game that he only let me play that one time. It was amazing. I forgot everything about the real world and found myself absorbed in that one. I was in a whole new world, vast and colorful. Filled with exciting possibilities of adventure.

A short bus ride home now separates me from losing what little I have of a social life. Feeling beyond excited I board the bus on as patiently as I can wait until I'm in my neighborhood. The doors open and I'm off running. Turn right here, left there and soon enough I'm standing at my door step.

"I'm home!" I yell as I enter my home and take my shoes off.

Not even caring if someone replied to what I yell I speed towards the second floor and slam the door behind me as I enter my room. Not wasting any more time I pop the game in and grab my Nerve Gear, putting the thing on feels somewhat tight and weird, but once you go in none of that mattered. Seriously, technology never ceases to amaze me. Thankfully, while in the excitement of the night before I had already charged and calibrated my gear. So I was just minutes away from starting to play. I strap myself in and lay down on my bed. It is 2:26 a lot of the lucky 10, 000 people with copies should already be playing by now. I get comfortable and closed my eyes.

"Link start."

I start seeing colors but I knew I was no longer on my body; the NerveGear started its amazing doings. After a few seconds of flashing colors of what seemed to be a long tunnel I find myself at the calibration screen. It quickly okays my settings and prompts me with a log in screen. I'm a bit surprised since I have never really played something with a log in screen, SAO is going to be the first MMORPG I ever play and I'm excited it is going to be a VR one, the whole concept of the full dive and the game itself is already interesting and it is just begging me to try it by myself. Once I go through the log-in screen I find a character slot.

I get an option to create a new character, I quickly select it and it displays what might as well be a mirror. Slightly curly short black hair, tall, slightly chubby. I'm certainly not going to play as myself. Why be yourself when you can be a better version of yourself? Just to fool around a bit I go over the change sex option. I quickly change back to normal. Horrible idea. A woman with my physical qualities isn't exactly what I would call attractive.

Without hesitation I start making some minor adjustments over my image. Straight hair. A Little muscle here. Less fat here. Some other minor changes and done. My avatar is ready. The starting clothes are nothing too shabby but they looked good nevertheless. With a brown and black combination it looks nice. I chose a long sword as a starting weapon and placed the sheath at my hip. I've always liked knights hence why I place the sheath there.

**-Is this Character OK?-**

I press the "yes" and wait for about three seconds.

**-Are you sure?-**

Yes, I am sure game. Are you questioning how good I look or something? After selecting the right option a flash of white light blinds me for a moment. My ears start ringing for some reason. Things slowly become clear before my eyes. I feel ground below my feet; I wobble around a bit and touch my legs.

"Holy crap this is amazing!" I exclaim.

I can feel the fabric of my pants. Lifting my head a little I can see a plaza with people coming out of blue flashes of light. Voices sound clear and I can even hear the steps of people around me.

"Hey guys, let's go hunt some of the boar looking things!" says a player going past me with her group.

The warmth of the sun, the slow yet fresh air current, I can feel it all. Reaching for my sheath I feel my sword and slowly take it out. It reflects sunlight as I thrust it into the air in excitement.

"Woah! Watch it, man!" huffs player walking by.

All feelings of excitement disappear as I pull my sword down in embarrassment.

"Err, sorry," I say while scratching my head.

I sheath the weapon and turn around still being mesmerized by all the things going on around me.

"Haha, want to get an orange cursor over you head already or what?"

I recognize that voice.

"Charles!" I shout while turning around to a bald man and his companion. "You…you are bald…"

Charles is my friend form school and the one who let me try out SAO's beta. His name is not Charles obviously, that's just what he calls himself in every single game with an online component.

"Indeed I am, and guess what? Charles is my user name once again," he says while laughing.

It looks like I'm spot on again.

"Huh? Now that you mention it…I can't see it," I mumble.

"Oh, I guess I should invite you to our party first," he mutters.

He starts going through a floating menu, it's slightly transparent but it has all kinds of options all over it. I find myself ogling like an excited child when his friend has a new toy.

"Wait, first things first. How did you know it was me?" I question.

"Well, you always make the same kind of character for games. I would even dare to say you have the same user name as always."

Well that is bullshit, he is either psychic or…I do make the same kind of character for games. A beep snaps me out of my thoughts as a little screen popped up in-front of me. It's a friend invite from Charles, I hover my finger over the blue circle and press it. It feels natural and the little screen is dismissed as I do so. A second later another little screens pops up, it's a party invite from Charles. I press the circle again; I glance to my health bar on the upper left corner of my own vision and could see two other bars being added just below it.

"Oh, I forgot, this other guy with me is, his name is Daath. We met during the beta testing period," Charles says.

The thin black haired guy behind him steps forward and extends his hand to greet me. Grabbing his hand with a tight grip I shake hands with him.

"Pleasure to meet you, Alshep. A friend of Charles is a friend of mine," he says.

"Haha! I knew it! Same character name as always!" shouts the bald man.

I grin as I punch him on the arm.

"Shut up, you chose a bald man!" I tease.

Daath starts laughing and I join in to mock my friend. We stop laughing when something crashes with us, toppling us to the ground. It didn't hurt at all, but it sure was disorienting and I could feel the impact as pressure.

"What the hell, watch it!" I yell.

"I-I'm so sorry."

A girl is on her knees rubbing her head about a foot away from me. She has red hair and is wearing a purple cloak. She looks about my age, a tad bit shorter than me. I get up on my feet and stare down at her, a little angry to be honest.

"Are you alright?" Daath asks while helping the girl up.

"Uh…uhm yes, Thank you sir," she replies.

This girl looks clumsy as hell. I think on it for a second and scare myself a little. She might be a man or an old lady. An awful goose bump goes up my spine as I imagine it.

"You seem fairly new to this, why don't you join us? We are going to teach this guy how to play; you might as well come along," says Charles as he pats my back.

The girl seemed flustered as she looks at her feet and fidgets a little. Charles keeps patting on my back as if waiting for an answer to stop doing so. The girl keeps doing her little shy dance on spot for a few seconds.

"Yes or no?" I ask with a harsh tone.

This breaks her out of her fidgeting and she looks straight at us.

"Y-y-yes! Yes please, please teach me how to play!" she says.

Charles stops patting and then slaps my back hard. Trying not to trip I step forward a bit. I sigh in my head as I hope for the girl not to be a creepy old man. The little screen pops up in-front of the girl and she nervously presses the blue circle. Another green bar is added below Daath's and I am able to see a name. Elina.

"Alright! We are set! Let's teach these two newbies how to play Daath!" Charles shouts.

He always makes too much of a fuzz out of things. Elina gets beside me and smiles at me before turning to see the other guys.

"Please don't be a creepy old man," I mutter under my breath.

"First off! What weapons did you two choose!?" he screams.

"I got a long sword," I say while unsheathing the cool looking piece of metal.

"I chose a short sword," says Elina while taking it out as well.

Daath nods and Charles scratches his chin, trying to appear thoughtful. A few seconds pass by and he doesn't move nor mutters anything. Even Daath gets in front of him to see what is going on. Charles lets his arms down with a quick movement

"OK! So a sharp stick and a butter knife! Let's move!"

What…? Elina looks embarrassed and she sheathes her sword. I do the same as I try not to punch my friend in the face. Charles walks past us and Daath waits for us to follow Charles. Daath seems on the verge of laughing.

"He can be a little…"

"Weird, haha I know," I interrupted Daath.

"Is my sword really a butter knife?" Elina mutters.

Daath laughs a little and pats her back.

"Don't worry he has a starter sword as well. Even I have a starter long sword," he says trying to reassure the girl.

We keep walking down a large street; a kind of lake could be seen from the distance. The town door was placed farther across the lake. I take a few seconds to just look around as we walk. It all feels so lively, so real, so interesting.

"Oh right, take these as a gift from myself, " says Daath while handing us each, one red vial.

"Health potions?" I ask.

"Yes, but be weary, these take a bit to kick in so be sure to drink if you feel in danger."

Both Elina and I take the vials and store them in our inventory. We keep walking some more and we are already past the lake and heading out of town. Charles walks in front of us in a really absurd way as we follow.

"Wait, isn't everyone supposed to be new to this game? How can you two know how to play? It just came out today." says Elina.

"True, but some people were given early access to the game as beta testers," replies Daath

We make it out of town and into a big open field of grasslands. Other players go in and out of town, rushing, laughing, and having a blast. A strong breeze passes by, brushing the field's grass. I see boars and some big insects in the distance.

"What is a beta tester?" Elina asks.

Wow, you have got to be kidding me.

"By any chance, is this your first MMORPG?" I ask while trying not to be rude but being a hypocrite.

Elina nods as we keep walking. Daath glances at me with a confused look.

"My sister got it for me, she said it might pique my interest and maybe it'll make me happy," she states.

"Well, a beta tester is a person from a selected group of people chosen to try the game before it comes out," I explain.

I wonder what kind of person is she, if she is a girl that is. Or a guy…a regular guy please.

"I see. That's very nice of your sister. Well, we are here now so we better teach you how to use your weapons, Daath adds.

I unsheathe my sword and place myself in front of a boar. For a low level enemy its eyes are rather intimidating to be honest. Charles looks at me and nods. What are you my master or something? I return my attention to my enemy and get on a battle stance. A whirring sound confirms that I'm charging a sword skill. Great, just like in the beta. I let my body move forwards and jump over the boar. Confused it tries to find me but I quickly slice through him. I sheath my sword and stand proudly for approval as the result screen pops up in-front of me.

-Result-

-Exp: 20-

-Col: 15-

-Items: 0-

"That was amazing!" Elina cheers.

"It seems you remember from what little I let you play, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm one out of one hundred percent beta testers," I reply jokingly to Charles.

Daath and Charles laugh as Elina stands there confused by what I just said. The swiftness and speed this game grants you is amazing, there is no way I could've done that in real life.

"Are you a beta tester too, Alshep?" she asks.

I shake my head in disapproval but I'm quickly interrupted by Charles.

"It so turns out I know this little bugger in real life. We attend to the same school, I let him play a little of my beta version," he says while putting his arm over me and pulling me close to him.

"Yeah, haha," I say while pushing Charles off me.

She wows in awe and turns to Daath.

"What about you Daath? Do you know them in real life too?"

He smiles and shakes his head.

"No, I only know Charles from the beta period," he replies.

Daath and Elina smile to each other as another boar spawns close to us.

"Just a heads up, I asked my sister to disconnect me in an hour or so since we have to go out to buy some stuff. So I'll be leaving you guys then," Charles reports.

I look at the clock, 3:40. Time sure flies in here

"It's your turn Elina, show us what you can do," says Daath as he bumps Elina forward a little

The poor girl almost falls with the push and readies her sword while shaking a little. She side steps a bit and charges at the boar. With a sword skill she could easily take him out in one hit or two. I guess she isn't that familiar with the system yet. Elina flails at the boar damaging it a little.

"Watch out, it counters after a little!" Charles shouts.

Elina dumbfounded turns to us leaving her defense open. Oh boy. The boar hits her, knocking her to the ground and depleting quite a bit of her HP.

"Quickly, get up and try a sword skill. Think as if you were about to attack it really hard," says Daath.

Elina gets on her feet and steps back a little before looking at us again. She refocuses and lifts her sword over her head. It lights up as she closes her eyes.

"What in the world is she doing?" I mutter.

"Focusing," Daath utters.

The boar takes this as teasing and charges at Elina. This is a lost cause, it's going to hit her again. To my surprise she side steps swiftly before getting hit and slices the boar vertically as it passes next to her.

The boar turns into light and the results appear before Elina. She jumps in joy and shouts out of excitement.

"I did it!"

We clap in synch at her success as she hops over to us. She smiles and seems excited of her accomplishment.

"How do I equip an item?" She asks.

Daath quickly walks her through the inventory screens and tells her how to equip items. Meanwhile I talk with Charles about how much the game amazes me. Soon enough Elina has a new round shield equipped and we continue through the grasslands hunting some boars.

Daath proves to be an experienced player as he kicks a boar off the ground and slices it midair. It's amazing how little limitations this game has as of what you can do. It's simply overwhelming. More time passes by and I'm the only one without any new piece of gear. Elina got another sword and Daath too. Charles is flashing a new coat he got from a wolf.

"So how far did you make it during the beta, Daath?" I ask.

Charles is teaching Elina how to do a –switch- during battle while I talk with Daath from the sidelines.

"Not very far, I only made it to the fifth floor. Although I did hear some players made it higher than that," He says.

We watch as Elina does a successful switch with Charles and kills a boar. That looked nice. As they walk over to us. Charles just bursts into light. Elina jumps from the sudden effect and tumbles on her butt.

"Woah…what the hell was that?" I ask.

"Hmm…he did say he was going to leave in a while. But that's nothing like the logging out transition. My guess is that they changed it for the full release of the game." Says Daath

"Guys! Guys! What happened to Charles!"

"It's nothing Elina, he must've been logged out by his sister," I say.

"Oh, alright. What should we do now?"

Daath sits down and smiles. We are going to sit? I don't follow. Elina sits next to him and they both gaze past me as if I were invisible.

"What are you two doing?"

Daath extends his arm and points in-front of him.

"Look," he says.

I turn to a bright beautiful sunset. Clouds subtly over arch the mountains making a beautiful sight along with the floating islands and waterfalls. This…is amazing. I sit and lose myself in the beautiful scenery set before me. I feel the soft grass with my hands and warm touch of the sun in my face.

"This is beautiful," says Elina.

"Yes, it truly is," replies Daath.

As if rehearsed all three of us exhale loudly. Our moment of peace is abruptly interrupted by loud bells coming from the distance. The ringing is constant and very loud, the sound seems to be coming from the city we exited a few hours ago.

"What is it with that noise?" I ask.

Daath gets on his feet and helps Elina up.

"If I knew trust me I would tell you. This first day has been very odd, first the log out button is nowhere to be found and now this. None of this happened in the beta."

"Wait, what? There's no log out button?" says Elina.

To confirm this as the bells continue, I quickly bring up my menu by swiping my hand in-front of me. I go over the icons and enter in shock as I confirm it.

"What is going o-" Elina says as she disappears from our sight in a flash of light.

Light suddenly engulfs me as well and I find myself standing in the plaza where I started playing. Elina is standing just a few feet away from me when Daath suddenly appears between me and her. Looking around a massive group of players has been gathered in the plaza. What in the world is going on?

"They force teleported us here..." Daath mutters.

Is this some kind of event then? Why gather all of us here? All of the people around us seemed anxious and scared. The atmosphere did make it feel like something bad was about to happen. The bells come to a sudden stop and the chatter from players does too. Elina gasps as she points to a red figure in the sky.

**-System Announcement-**

The figure slowly starts to replicate, it soon covers all the sky with impressive speed and things took a turn to the bizarre. The sky starts dripping a gooey red liquid. It looks like blood at first. Gross and unsettling, but it slowly starts to take am even more unsettling form.

It finally forms something recognizable. It looks like a man in red robes. It is gigantic, it has this omnipotent feeling to it. It slowly moves its arms up and speaks.

"Players, Welcome to my world. I am Kabaya Akihiko. I'm the only person currently in control of this world."

"That's the guy, he created SAO," says Daath.

I find myself baffled by what is going on, the man's presence is too much, too big, too powerful for me to just overlook.

"I hope you have already noticed the log out button is missing from the main menu. This, is not a game malfunction."

How is it not a game malfunction?! We are supposed to be able to log in and out freely. People all around me open their menus and seem shocked. I guess they didn't check it earlier either…

"I repeat. This is not a malfunction, but an original feature of Sword Art Online. You cannot log out of SAO on your own and no one in the real world will be able to remove or shut down your NerveGear."

"That's bullshit, Charles was able to log out just fine a bit ago," I say.

Daath and Elina both nod at me and turn to Akihiko quickly.

"Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit a powerful burst microwaves destroying your brain and thus ending your life."

My legs go numb and I kneel slowly, I feel sick, really sick. There's no way, Charles is still alive, there's no way he is dead.

"That isn't true…is it?" Elina asks.

"I…I don't know," Daath replies.

"Unfortunately, the friends and families of several players ignored this and have attempted to remove the NerveGear. As a result, 213 players have permanently retired from both Aincrad and the real world.

In a fit of anger I punch the floor.

"No! There is no way, you are lying!" I yell, part of me hoping that maybe I am heard in between the massive crowd.

"As you can see, news organizations around the world are reporting this incident, and its many deaths. Thus, you can assume the danger of having your NerveGear removed to be greatly reduced. So, please relax and work hard to clear the game."

"Let us out! You are lying!" someone shouts.

"However, do take note of this. You can no longer respawn in this game. If your HP reaches zero your avatar will be permanently deleted and at the same time…the NerveGear will fry your brain."

What..? Around me people are panicking, I hear crying and shouts of agony.

"You need only fulfill one condition to set yourselves free…clear the game. You are currently on the first floor, the lowest level of Aincrad. Make your way through each dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, and you will advance to the next floor. Defeat the final boss on the one hundredth floor, and you will clear the game."

Is this guy for real? The beta testers didn't even make it to the 10th floor in one month.

"And finally, you can find a gift from me in your item storage. Please, do check for yourselves."

And there it is, right in the inventory. A gift from Akihiko himself, labeled as "mirror" somewhat hesitant I click on it. A literal pocket mirror appears before me. Glancing around me I see a lot of people taking it out as well. Lifting it up to my face I could see it reflecting my avatar's face. What the hell is this supposed to mean? Suddenly people start shouting as they were surrounded by bright light. Scared, I turn around to Daath and Elina just before they were blurred by the light. I am blinded myself for a moment as the same happens to me. The shouts of fear didn't stop it felt as if people already started to die.

The light clears up after what felt like an eternity and I rub my eyes to try and make things clearer. I couldn't spot Daath or Elina anymore. Where could've they gone?

"Al-Alshep?" says a blonde skinny guy in front of me.

"What? How do you know me?"

"Your gear...its colors, they are like Alshep's. You are Alshep, no? It's me, Daath."

No fucking way. I was panicking, I look at my hands and then at my clothes. This isn't my avatar. It's...it's me. The real me! What is happening?

"What happened to my avatar?" I ask.

"It changed mine to how I look in real life. I think...it took the calibration data and replaced the avatars," he replies sounding very unsure.

No way can't this be happening. It takes me a bit to realize, but I guess he is right. Just looking around I am able to see players freaking out, touching their faces and bodies in shock. I see guys in girl's clothes and girls in male attires. This can't be happening.

"Where's Elina?" I ask.

Daath is about to speak when our attention was caught by what sounded like a little girl crying and sobbing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A little brown haired girl with a purple cloak is sitting on the ground crying just a few feet away from us.

"Elina...?" Daath asks.

The little girl brings her tear filled face up and looks at me and Daath. She appears confused but her tears stop flowing.

"Alshep? Daath?"

How old was she? She didn't appear older than my 15 year old cousin now. This game is rated 14+ why would she be here? Then again...no one really cares about ratings when it comes to games nowadays. Daath helps her to her feet and she stands behind him, scared and shaking.

"All of you must be wondering why. Why would Kabaya Akihiko, the creator of SAO and the NeveGear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I wanted to create a world that I could observe and admire this is why I made Sword Art Online."

"Are you trying to play god?!"

I look at Daath who just yelled his lungs out. His face was filled with anger and rage. However Kabaya didn't stop talking. He just kept going.

"And now, it has all been fulfilled. This ends the tutorial of Sword Art Online's launch. I wish every player…the best of luck."

With that he dissolves slowly into thin air.

I hear nothing for a moment and then the sudden crash of something on the ground, followed by a girl's scream. And then, all hell started to break loose. Shouting, screaming, crying. It was chaos. I suddenly feel someone pulling me up. It's Daath.

"Grab Elina and follow me. Don't fall behind."

He says that with a straight face, no emotion I instinctively grab the little girl's hand and start running behind Daath. I might've been forceful but I merely acted on impulse. Daath stops after running far apart from the plaza. The streets were dark and there was not a noise to be heard. He takes a deep breath and turns to us.

"Look, there's this room where you respawned during the beta. I refuse to believe Charles is dead. Let's go there. Maybe we'll find some sort of clue."

Elina starts crying again and drops to her knees. Daath quickly got on his knee and got close to her.

"This was supposed to be fun! I don't want to die!" she cries.

Daath puts his hands on her shoulders and shakes her gently.

"Listen, you need to hold yourself together alright? I promise you won't die. But please, you have to be strong. Everything will be alright."

I stare while he tries to calm the little child, I feel hopeless. There is so much information my mind I was still trying to process. What if my brother, or my sister rip the NerveGear off my head. I would die. With no voice or choice in the matter, just like that. Dead.

Elina stops crying and gets on her feet. Daath smiles and then returns to his serious face.

"Alright, we'll have to head back to the Black Iron Castle. If I remember correctly the Room of Resurrection should be there."

I nod and follow as he starts walking. We walk for quite a while before I notice Elina is not with us. Turning my head back is enough to spot her. She is look straight ahead with teary eyes. Without thinking I extend my arm and beckon her over.

"Come on, it's ok," I say.

She places her arm ahead of her and starts walking towards me until she reaches my hand. I can tell she is holding onto my hand tightly. We continue walking until we come across the main plaza again. It is mostly empty just a few groups of people stayed behind. Constant sobbing can be heard, except this time it isn't Elina.

Daath walks confidently in-front of us and without hesitation. Elina lets go of my hand and places herself between me and Daath.

"You two ok?" Daath asks.

"Yeah," I reply.

"Y…yes," says Elina.

"Good, we are almost there," he says.

Daath leads us through the door of a black castle and into a dim lighted corridor with what looks like a big black tablet on the back.

"That big stone wasn't there during the beta," says Daath.

"You sure this is the right place?" I ask.

Elina wanders deeper into the corridor and reaches the stone. As if she was looking for something.

"Yes, I'm completely sure. This is the room of resurrection."

"Monument of Life," says Elina.

With that, the big stone lights up and displays what appear to be words. I get closer and notice they are actually names. They are placed in alphabetical order all over the stone. I look around and quickly find mine in the first bunch.

"What is this thing?" I mutter.

"It's showing the character names…" Daath follows.

Elina goes along the tablet and stops near the middle. She gasps and clicks something. Daath goes over to her and I follow out of curiosity. What I see takes the air out of my lungs as I stand back clenching my fists really tight.

"No, this can't be," says Daath

Elina drops to her knees and starts crying again. Daath gets close to her and tries to calm her again.

"Please, come on. Please stop crying, it'll be alright I promise."

"Why are you sugar coating this shit?" I say harshly.

Daath looks at me and Elina stops crying as I say that. Daath's seems annoyed as he stands up.

"Don't you get it? That bastard was right, if we die here that's it. Game Over. If we die here, we'll die for real!"

Elina gathers strength to get up and stands behind Daath.

"I was just trying to make someone feel a little better asshole," Daath replies.

"What point is there? You don't even know her."

He looks behind him and put his hand on Elina's shoulder.

"She is in my party," he replies.

I try to hold my frustration in and clench my fists tighter.

"And so are you," he adds

Suddenly I relax and look straight and him and Elina

"Now, I have a plan and I don't mind taking you two along. If anything it'll make things easier. And I guarantee you, we will survive. You have to trust me."

I stare at the ground and stay silent. After a bit Daath walks behind me as Elina follows him slowly. Elina stops next to me and Daath continues walking until he reaches the end of the hallway. I feel something tugging my arm.

"Please come with us…" she says.

I look up and see Elina, she is trying to hold back tears and so am I. I don't know what to do.

"Are you coming as well, Alshep?" Daath asks from afar.

"Yeah…I…I'm sorry."

Elina walks away and I walk behind her. Daath turns around and heads for the exit along with her. I stop at the end of the hallway and turn to the lit up stone. I feel tears run down my face as I remember what I saw on it. I won't give up man. I'll make it back…That's a promise.

**-Charles-**

**-Disconnection-**

**-5:15 PM-**

**-November 6, 2022-**

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><p>Crysina here, well that was the first chapter my little saga. I do want to give it a proper development climax and ending (This time around haha), so expect to see a lot of me around here. Once week, starting this Sunday. Do expect weekly updates.<p>

So what did you think? Good? Bad? I accept all kinds of reviews and feedback, don't be shy I don't bite.

Thank you for taking the time to read. See ya soon.


	2. Chapter 2 - Under The Night Sky

**Chapter 2.- Under The Night Sky**

**November-6****th****-2022**

**Daath**

A million thoughts were going through my mind. Why would Akihiko do something like this? Why trap us all in a game of death? Why did I choose to play today? I had other things to do. I could've done my homework, I could've gone out with my little sister to see that movie she wanted. I could've done…so many things. But here I was, finding out a friend I met last month has just recently…retired from the world of the living. It was all too much for me to handle properly so I tried to assume the role of a leader. Something I'm really not fit for. I never stood out at school, I was never head of class. Yet here I am, asking two strangers to trust me with their lives.

"What is your plan?" Elina asks me.

"Well, first of the list is to wait for the big guy," I reply.

"Big guy? You mean…That's a little mean, Daath," She says.

"I apologize, he got in my nerves a little back there."

She turns her head down. I think even she understands Alshep's little play back there was uncalled for. What annoyed the most was his attitude, for a second I thought he just threw all hope out of the window. Elina is thirteen, fourteen years tops. And I have this guy screaming how we are all going to die. He really did get on my nerves.

"Sorry, I just feel sick right now," says Alshep as he comes out of the castle's door.

And I just feel a little sick of you.

"So, what's the plan?" he asks.

I started to think about things just that second. All I said in the now renamed "Monument of Life" was out of the blue, to keep our hopes up.

"Starting City is done for, I think it's actually dangerous to stay here. I think our best bet is Tolbana Town but we'll have to get to Horunka Village first."

"What?" they say in synch.

Focus…these two aren't beta testers.

"Tolbana is the largest town after this one, at least on this floor. We could stay there for a while. It's safe, it has inns shops and food. But, if we want to make it there we'll have to stop at Horunka Village to rest and stock up."

This is a lie, Tolbana and Horunka are almost in opposite directions, but there is something that might help us in Horunka. Other than just shops and potions, I'm looking for a sword in particular.

"So, you want to take us through the grasslands? Isn't that dangerous?" Alshep asks.

"Not if you are with me, I know this place well."

Partly, it is true. It is dangerous to go to Horunka this early but, with a party of three I doubt it'll be much trouble. If we stick to the road we'll only encounter boars and some wolves, it is if we deviate to the forest that we'll maybe face trouble.

"Fine, where to then?" he says.

"We need to go out of the city and northeast from there. This place is as big as your common prefecture so it'll still take us a bit to get to Horunka," I reply.

Alshep sighs and looks around a bit. I didn't notice until he took a look around, but it was almost pitch dark, for some reason the street lights weren't on yet. This bothered me a little since it was quite hard to see at night with no lights in SAO.

"It's getting dark…I don't like dark…" Elina mutters.

Starting City sold everything you needed to start playing SAO properly. It made sense to get some stuff quickly before heading out to Horunka. Maybe get a few potions, a lamp and if we have enough to go around some armor.

"Alright then, follow me. Stay close," I order.

I started heading to the main road out of the city with Alshep and Elina following me. An eerie feeling drops on me suddenly as I walk. Never before, not even during the beta did I feel so grounded to Sword Art Online. Something that I played for leisure and enjoyment suddenly became a prison. The feeling in my feet as I walked, the cold air of the night, it never did it feel so real. SAO had become my reality and there was nothing I could do about it.

"You sure you want to keep going straight? A large group of players seems to be ahead," says Alshep.

I stop and turn to my left just a bit before reaching the lake in-between the city gates and the main plaza. I stop near a small shop and wait for my partners to catch up.

"How much col do you guys have?" I ask.

Almost at the same time they bring up their menus. I do the same since I don't remember how much I'm currently carrying.

"I have four hundred and sixty eight," says Alshep.

"I…I have three hundred and five," says Elina.

"Ok, and with me we have a total of one thousand one hundred and thirty two," I say

The street lights suddenly turn on and the vendor behind me comes out of her house. We must make haste now that the city is running again we need to buy what we need and get out of here as soon as possible.

"I'll buy a lamp and some armor. Elina, buy three potions and armor for yourself, you should have enough. Al, get some armor as well and save the rest maybe we'll need it later," I say firmly.

Expecting some backfire from this I look at Alshep as he approaches the street vendor. He says nothing nor looks at me. Good. I turn myself and open the shops menu. I go through the items and find what I'm looking for quickly.

-Starter Oil Lamp: 50Col-  
>-Hard Leather Coat: 145Col-<br>-Total: 195Col-  
>-Buy- -Cancel-<p>

I press the buy button and open my menu to equip the coat. Light envelops my upper body and a brown long coat appears over the starter clothes. My sheath strap goes over it as it appears on my body. Elina equips herself with two shoulder plates that stay beneath her cloak and Alshep purchased gauntlets that go up to his shoulders.

"Ok, you guys ready? We are going to run now," I say.

They nod and I turn around, and head to a side street to avoid the main road. We are better off not running into players right now. I may be over reacting but if even beta testers went crazy with player killing I don't want to see how a crowd of stressed people reacts. Even if you can't PK inside a town or city, I don't want to risk it. At our pace we reach the city gates quickly and with no problems. I stop quickly to catch my breath.

"Is that Horunka?" Elina asks as she points to dim lights in the distance.

"Great guess, that's exactly it," I say.

She smiles and starts walking a bit in-front of me. Alshep walks past me and trails behind the girl. I start walking and bring up my menu to equip the lantern. The item materializes in front of me and starts shining brightly. It only lights up so much but it'll give us some idea of where we are walking. Elina gasps and runs to me.

"Thank god, I thought we were going to walk through in the dark," she says.

"He did mention he was getting a lamp," Alshep adds.

"Are you always this cynical?" I question.

He looks away and keeps walking. I look at Elina who is looking at him and our eyes meet for a moment before she sets them on the road. She doesn't seem to dislike this man but I'm not sure if we'll be able to stay together for long.

"Stop," says Alshep as he unsheathes his sword.

He places it in front of him as he charges a sword skill. What is he doing? There shouldn't be any enemies so close to the city. To my surprise a group of red shining eyes suddenly become visible in front of Alshep. Wolves…crap. I handed the lamp over to Elina and told her to keep her weapon ready. I reach to my back and unsheathe my sword as I get close to Alshep.

"Why aren't they attacking?" he asks.

"They are examining our group," I whisper.

I ready a sword skill as I get next to him.

"Should we take initiative then?" he says.

"I don't think they might be too hard, how many did you count?"

"Four," he replies.

He looks at me and we nod to each other. I let go and the sword quickly connect me with a fatal blow to one of the wolves. I see Alshep do the same and quickly dispatches of a wolf as well. Well at least he compensates on being battle proficient. The next wolf rapidly approaches me and I kick it to my left. Lifting my sword I stab the ground through it and kill the wolf. I see a flash of light close to Alshep confirming he killed the other one.

"Is that it?" I shout.

He nods and sheathes his sword. This is bad…there's no result screen. I turn to the small spot of light with Elina in the middle and see two small red dots treading behind her.

"Elina! Behind you!"

I see her turn around quickly but the wolf lunges over her faster than I expected. Elina starts screaming as the wolf bites and scratches her. I start running but I fear I might not be quick enough. The wolf tears through her cloak and keeps attacking her. Suddenly the wolf bursts into light and I reach the spot. A frightened Elina lies before me with a sword at hand and a scared face.

"Are you ok?!" Alshep asks as he arrives.

The result screen pops up but I quickly discard it as I get on my knee. Her HP reached red and was just a few more scratches away from saying goodbye. I grab her shoulder and shake her lightly. She directs her sword to me and swipes quickly with it.

"Get away!" She screams.

"Calm down, ok? You are ok. Take one of the potions and get on your feet alright?" I say gently.

She puts away her weapon and stands. Just out of the city and she was already about to die. I can't help but to feel responsible and apologize to her a couple of times before we keep going to Harunka. I couldn't help but to picture my sister when I saw her. They didn't look alike but it was the fact that she was young and frightened that made me think of my sister.

A few minutes of walking were all it took to make Starting City look like tiny dots of light in the distance. Harunka became a little clearer as we walked but it was still a bit away from us. In the distance I could see a spot of light moving quickly to Horunka. Perhaps it's another player? If it was, it had to be a beta tester. I don't think any new players would think of heading out of Starting City this soon. Let alone visit Horunka when Tolbana is closer to Starting City.

"I feel I'm close to level two," Alshep says.

"Oh yeah, that reminds me. How do I know when I'm going to level up?" Elina asks.

"Well, there isn't really anything in the UI that tells you how close you are. Like Al said, you just…well, feel it."

It took a few hours to reach level two in the beta, a couple more to reach three. It was after level eight when it really felt like it took days. As we get closer to Horunka, enough to be able to see a couple of buildings another pack of wolves appears on our right side. I was readying my sword when Elina pressed the lamp against my side.

"Let me…try," she mumbles.

Unsure and almost unwillingly I take the lamp as she walks towards the wolves with Alshep on her side. Al unsheathes and Elina does the same along with her shield. With a sword skill on the ready he attacks the first wolf, killing it in one swift blow he backs up and quickly prepares for the next one. Elina charges at the wolf closest to her, with incredible strength, she hits it to the ground with her shield, she then stabs it two times while it's down. I stand impressed, the sudden change in attitude was drastic. She looks fierce and determined in battle. After they are done with the pack, again the result screen didn't show up. I placed the lamp on the ground and unsheathed my sword as I saw a big pair of eyes in front of my party.

"We got a pack leader! Be ready!" I yell.

Alshep and Elina start walking back to me with their weapons at the ready. Alshep naively attacks head-on and is barely able to graze the big wolf.

"Yeah! We can tak-" he was interrupted as the leader sent him flying several feet away from me.

"Elina, do you remember how to switch?" I ask.

She nods and I charge at the wolf. He swipes at me with its paw but I dodge it and am able to connect a few hits at its chest. I jump back and look at Elina.

"Switch!"

She immediately jumps in with a sword skill and does a three hit combo on the beast's side. She sides steps and looks back at me.

"Switch!" she yells.

Looking carefully at the beast I ready a sword skill and wait for it to lunge at me. It takes my bait and it jumps at me. I barely manage to side step around it and slash vertically with my sword charged. I see Alshep on the corner of my eye rushing at the wolf with his sword up. I look at him and nod as he does the same.

"Go for it! Switch!" I scream.

He growls as he runs and jumps to the wolf's face.

"Take this!"

He slashes its face and lands on his feet as he watches it topple in-front of him. The result screen appears before me.

-Result-  
>-Exp: 132-<br>-Col: 312-  
>-Items: 0-<p>

I look up at my health bar and see that I leveled up. Well, that's a start.

"Woohoo! Got a rare sword!" shouts Alshep.

He equips it in his hand, a long slick blade with fur on the crossguard. Elina is jumping out of joy and starts to head for the lamp that I set on the ground.

"Hey Alshep!" I say.

He turns to look at me just as Elina arrives behind me with the lamp. I extend my arm and give him a thumbs up.

"Great job, man," I yell.

He sheathes his sword and walks over to us. Just as he is about to meet us he raises his hand above his head.

"You did well too," he says.

I smile and meet his hand with mine for a high-five. It has got to be the most satisfying high-five I've ever received. We managed to beat a mid-level boss, and we did it in an extraordinary manner. He turns to Elina and ruffles her hair a bit.

"You did well too. I saw it all," he exclaims.

Elina blushes and pushes away his hand but then giggles. I can't help but to smile at that and feel good about this journey so far.

"And here I thought you two wouldn't get along," I say.

They both look at me and laugh a little. They stop and look at each other before laughing a some more. I join in the little laugh and then start walking towards Horunka. Alshep walks up my right and Elina up my left side.

"I uhmm… thought things over. I want to say sorry. You know, about how I acted earlier and stuff," he says.

I grin to myself and pat his back.

"It's alright, we are in the same party. I'm sure things will just get harder."

With that Elina turns to her feet and Alshep sighs a little. After all I just keep amazing myself with these on the spot speeches.

"But as long as we stay together. And get stronger. I'm sure, I'm absolutely sure we can stay alive," I add.

Elina holds my hand and Al smiles and gives me a pat in the back.

"You sure know what to say," he laughs.

If only you knew, if only you knew…

* * *

><p>We finally reach Harunka. I lift my arms and stretch hard. Well that was awfully tiring. Alshep sits on a crate along the wall of one of the first buildings and Elina on the floor next to it.<p>

"Hey! Not that fast! We need to at least get some rooms at the inn," I say.

"Ehh? But I'm tired," says Elina.

Alshep gets up and grabs Elina's arm.

"Come on, he is right. That way we will be safe," says Alshep.

Well, before that. I think it's time I come clean as to why we came here. I was just about to speak when a player comes up running behind me. He stops, he was heaving, and trying to catch his breath he opens his menu to change swords. It catches my eye, that's exactly the blade I'm looking for. This guy beat me to the quest. I'm sure I can still get it though. The player has black hair and looks startled, his clothes were the starter set. A blue shirt along with the standard leather chest piece nothing fancy. He was either very skilled or didn't care to upgrade.

"Hey, are you alright?" Alshep asks.

The player looks at us as he sheaths his blade. He said nothing but looked away and started running out of sight.

"Geez…what was that about?" says Alshep.

I sigh as I realize it was time to tell the truth.

"We are not here to resupply," I say trying to hide my face

Al's and Elina's attention found itself centered on me.

"What did you just say?" Alshep says as he stands up.

"We are here…for a quest…"

I saw as Al clenched his fist and Elina got up to grab his arm. This little girl may have just spared me a punch in the face.

"Are you freaking kidding me right now? We almost died outside of town for a stupid quest?!"

I nod and look away, I knew what I was doing. I knew it could backfire like it is.

"Look, this will help us. We'll get stronger and the item we'll get will spare us a lot of trouble," I say.

He growls at me and turns around. Elina looks worried and stands between me and him.

"Ok, fine…whatever. Where to?" he says.

Elina stares at me with a pouting face and for some reason it makes me feel horrendously bad.

"The NPC is right this way…follow me," I sigh.

As they followed me around I felt their eyes stabbing my back. It is almost painful.

* * *

><p>"So we just get this Ovule thing, huh?" Alshep teases.<p>

"Yes," I reply.

"You say they drop from these Nepents things?" he continues.

"Yes," I say.

"The ones that have these flowers on their head?" he adds.

"Yes," I say frustrated.

"He already explained this in the village Al!" says Elina.

"Thank you," I mutter.

This guy sure knows when to be an ass and when to be the nicest person in the world. It has been a bit since we left the village and headed into the woods to find the Nepents. We'll be searching for regular ones at first, but if we spot one with a red flower we are to defeat it quickly and return to the village since it will drop the item we need to complete the quest. Absolutely for no reason we should attack a Nepent with fruit on its head. The result of that…could be deadly.

"There," Elina whispered while pointing to a Nepent.

"Good eye. We should be careful. These things are a level higher than we are. Since we are three it shouldn't be much trouble. But still, be careful and watch out for the ones with fruit," I say.

We all nod at each other and approach the Nepent carefully. We all ready up our weapons and get separated around the enemy.

"Now!" Elina shouts as she closes in to attack.

She hits it four times before yelling "switch" for Alshep to step in. He charges at the Nepent and slices quickly through it. To my surprise his attack kills it and the enemy disappears.

"Wow this sword sure is something," he says to himself.

"Don't let your guard down just now, we are just getting started," I say.

We continue our battle through the forest with no luck in finding a Flower Nepent. We collect Col and Exp like nobody's business but still, to no avail. Elina acquired a new shield and I got some shoulder plates. Al finds another sword but refuses to use since his "Wolf Blade" is better.

"How many more do we have to kill? I'm already level three here," Alshep says.

"I don't know. It's bound to be here somewhere, just a little more come on," I reply.

"Oh! There look! It's one with a flower!" Alshep shouts.

I turn around and spot it as it spawns behind us. Sweet, just in time. Now, to cut it down.

"Attack!" I shout.

Alshep goes in with a skill and slices the Nepent sideways. He makes it stagger and opens it for another attack.

"Switch," he says.

Elina jumps and hits it hard with her shield making it step back.

"Switch!" she yells.

I ready a sword skill and run towards the enemy. I quickly avoid it as it tries to get me with its mouth. With the flower at ground level I take my chance and attack its stem which is coming right out of the monster's head. My sword quickly cuts through and the Nepent bursts into pieces. The battle result pops up andI acquire the item we were looking for.

"Was that it?" Elina asks.

I nod and look at my inventory.

-Little Nepent's Ovule-

We put away our weapons and start walking towards Harunka Village again.

"Well that didn't take long whatsoever," says Al.

"Are you really like this all the time?" I reply.

He starts laughing and pushes me playfully as we walk. We reach Horunka again and meet with the NPC who gave us the quest.

"Thank you so much, I am forever in your debt. Please, take this as a token of my gratitude."

Since we were a party it only gave us one item. We talked about it and decided I should keep it since Alshep likes his current sword and Elina said she likes short swords better. I went through my equipment and change my sword for the Anneal Blade. I unsheathe it to take a look at it. A grip of a simple design; the blade started out narrow then widened and then became narrow and widened again before becoming straight , it looked better than it did on the beta.

"So that's the sword huh?" Al asks.

I nod and put it away as we walk down Horunka Village.

"Can we go to the inn now?" Elina asks with tired eyes.

"Of course, but…it isn't really an inn," I say.

We walk to an NPC house and I knock on the door gently. An old woman comes out to greet us.

"Excuse me, do you have any rooms for rent?" I ask.

She nods and lets us into her home. She explains her price is 40 Col a night per room. We decide to stay there and rest up for the coming day. We are given access to our respective rooms and we wave each other good night.

In my room I switch to town clothing and lay myself on the bed. This day was tiring. Having to sleep in a game…it doesn't feel right. I wonder for a brief moment what is of my unconscious body back in the real world. Is my family ok? Do they know what happened to me? How is my sister doing? These are questions I won't have an answer for in a while. I roll to my side and close my eyes, but I receive a message.

-From: Elina  
>-To: Daath, Alshep<br>-Subject: -  
>-Message: I just remembered we'll have to sleep in this world…<p>

She is right…as of now there's no way around it.

-From: Alshep  
>-To: Daath, Elina<br>-Subject: Reply  
>-Message: I know it's hard but just try not to think about. Ignorance is bliss.<p>

This guy I'm telling you. He has the weirdest mood swings. But in the end he is a nice guy. I feel like I've bonded with these two today.

-From: Elina  
>-To: Daath, Ashep<br>-Subject: Reply  
>-Message: I guess you are right…Well…good night you two. See you in the morning.<p>

-From: Alshep  
>-To: Daath, Elina<br>-Subject: Reply  
>-Message: Good night.<p>

I could've done so many things today…so many things.

-From: Daath  
>-To: Alshep, Elina<br>-Subject: Reply  
>-Message: Good night…<p>

* * *

><p>Hiya guys! Crysina here, some of the changes in the chapters are merely spelling and grammar but I hope this is pleasant for some of you since I can admit my writing is horrid from time to time, but I do have my shining moments.<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Kudos if you spotted the brief cameo!

If you liked or didn't like this please leave a review, anything is alright.

Thanks for reading, see ya later!


	3. Chapter 3 - Netiquette

**Chapter 3.- Netiquette**

**November- 26****th****-2022**

**Alshep**

"That's the last of them," says Daath as he puts away his sword.

The result screen appears before me and I dismiss it without looking. I'm too tired to give a damn. I sheathe my sword and sit on the grass.

"I just reached level eight," says Elina.

"Good for you," I say as I lay on my back.

She gives me her usual pouty face and sits next to me. The sky is starting to break red from the sunset and I close my eyes for a brief moment. Wind brushes by and I can feel the grass move around me. It's sickening, I'm starting to get sick of it. Actually I'm already fed up with everything.

"Don't you think this blows?" I mutter.

"Hmm, what does?" Elina asks.

"You know, the wind, the grass, the sun. It's starting to feel…off. I don't know how to explain it," I reply.

I hear Daath sigh as he gets closer to us.

"Goddammit man, I thought we were done talking about this," he says.

"Well I'm bringing the topic back. Why does it all just feel weird?"

Elina sighs too and holds her legs close to her. We talked about this a few days back in the inn we are staying at in Tolbana. Sword Art Online is a game after all, however detailed it may be I can't get accustomed to it as my reality. It bothers me greatly. Whatever I found exciting and amusing about Sword Art Online at first I know find disturbing and weird. As far as I know my body is lying on a bed somewhere. I am perhaps being fed someway, haven't felt hunger or thirst since a little after the second day. Yet I want to eat, I want to drink, and I want to take a bath.

The NerveGear stimulates the senses, this means I can taste, feel, smell, hear, and see. I can taste food but, it's not going to my belly it's not feeling me up as it should. I just get that brief moment of glee when my taste buds are stimulated. I can drink water but it only does the same as food. Don't get me started on baths or showers. Daath explained last week when Elina wanted to take a bath that the only problem with the NerveGear and Sword Art Online have with water is its accuracy when trying to replicate the feeling of it. It turns out weird. Elina explained a feeling different to mine, but I just felt as if I submerged myself on some gooey liquid. Hence, I have not bathed or taken a shower since then. It's not like I smell or anything, thankfully the game doesn't really give me any body odor.

"It feels weird because you keep reminding us it feels weird," he says.

I shut my mouth up and open my menu. My sword is losing durability as well as my upper armor. I have enough Col to either buy new armor or repair the current one. I haven't gotten too interested in enhancements since I really don't know how they work and I don't know any blacksmiths.

"He doesn't have to remind us it feels weird for it to feel…weird," Elina mumbles.

"Great, now you got her all mellow again," Daath grunts.

"It's not his fault…" she says.

I sit up and look around as the sun starts to hide completely. It's almost time to start heading back to the inn. We've come up with a little routine in the last days. It consists of: Waking up, if you even had the luck of falling asleep that is. Then meeting in the first floor of the inn for breakfast, which is also optional. Elina always has something to eat, Daath has bread once in a while and I recently just started skipping meals completely. It's not like I feel hungry anyways. I've also recently become a more bitter man than I already was. I have been asked several times to tone down my sarcasm and to try to be a little friendlier to Elina. I have nothing against her, she is nice to me and I'm just nice to her in my own way. Daath would surely kick me out of the group if I showed him how I treat people I don't care about. After breakfast we go out to hunt a little, it keeps our senses keen and trained but it gets a little boring after a while. Later on we tackle some quests or just go exploring to see if there's something we've missed in the last week or so. If we find nothing else to do for the rest of the day we go around town. We actually just walk and talk till the day breaks. It is then, back to the inn. Rinse and repeat.

I get on my feet and stretch my arms. Elina gets up as well and looks at Daath and then she looks at me for a few seconds. She does this whenever she wants to say something. I little habit of hers I've picked up on.

"Is it ok if we hunt a little longer?" she asks.

"Huh? Why? You usually just want to head back to the inn," I say.

"Well, I…I don't want to sleep," she says in a low voice.

"Great job, idiot," Daath says to me.

"No no…It's not his fault. I just haven't got used to it. It just doesn't feel right. The sheets and the pillows I hate them. I don't like it," she adds.

Is it just that? Really? I haven't been able to sleep some nights but, it isn't because of the bed. It's just because it is when we go to bed that I start thinking about what the hell is going on with my body in the real world.

"Fine fine, we can hunt a little more," says Daath as he starts walking more into the forest.

I start following him when I feel Elina tugging my arm.

"Please, don't get him grumpy," she whispers.

"Sorry, I can't help but to voice what I feel sometimes."

She starts walking and we both match a general pace to follow Daath from a few feet away.

"I know, I've noticed, and you are a little rude sometimes too. It's just that if he gets grumpy, then you get grumpy and then I just get caught up in the middle of it. I don't like it," she says.

That makes me feel bad and I scratch my head as I nod. Apparently I do have to seriously start watching how I talk.

"You know, you are like a big…little sister, if that makes any sense," I say as I pat her head.

I can't help but to think of what she said earlier about the bed and just go ahead and ask what I got in mind.

"What's the real reason you don't want to go to sleep?"

She looks at her feet and we walk silently for a few seconds.

"Well?" I pressure.

"I find it hard, it's impossible for me to sleep unless I'm exhausted. Otherwise I just stay up all night thinking. It's scary sleeping in this world."

Damn, I should really learn when to shut up.

"There's a pack of wolves up ahead," Daath says.

I take out my sword and pat Elina on her head again.

"I'm sorry, I don't like it either. I don't like anything about this world right now, but it's where we live in right now. I'll make an effort….if you do so too," I say.

She smiles at me and takes out her shield and sword.

"Ok," she says in a cheery tune.

We start running to Daath and go past him with our weapons ready. Taking on wolves has become something trivial. Insects, worms and some of the enemies deeper into the forest are the ones that give us a tough time now. I remember the first day a little pack of wolves was enough to almost get us killed. I myself have had about two near death encounters so far. One against a bunch of wolfs that took us by surprise and another when I accidentally attacked a Little Nepent with a fruit on its head. Daath was more than right, it was deadly to do so. It attracts a massive group of the things and it nearly got us killed. That night was also when Elina had a bit of nervous breakdown. She didn't stop crying and kept begging for her mom. Thankfully that was just a minor bump in the road and we were able to move on rather quickly.

I strike a wolf and kill it with a single attack, another one jumps at me but I slice it up before it even got the chance to touch me. Elina has gotten a liking to hitting with her shield and then attacking her enemy with quick swipes of her sword. She has shown a strong defense in the past days and it made me consider trying a shield. I found myself not being good with coordination so I have postponed that, indefinitely.

"This is getting too easy," I say while striking the last wolf near me.

"Don't get too cocky. You never know when we might get overwhelmed," says Daath as he kicks a wolf out of the way.

"Why do you two like kicking and hitting so much? Don't your swords do enough damage?" I say as I put my blade away.

"I find it useful, versatile and don't want to only have to rely in my sword in the worst case scenario," he replies.

"My shield is actually part of my weapons, I think it's just second nature to use it," says Elina.

I scratch my head. I don't even know if hitting is a skill. I know the sword is one by default, one handed or two handed, whichever the player chooses to use, but hitting? I just find it unnecessarily dangerous.

"Anyways, let's keep at this for a while longer. We can head to town afterwards," I say.

After one or two hours give or take, we start heading back to Tolbana in pitch black darkness. The town seems lively tonight. Tolbana was a ghost town just a few days ago. Only a handful of players which we later found out were mostly beta testers were there. Other players had just recently started to arrive a few days ago. If it wasn't because of Daath practically being our mentor, my guess is that Elina and I might just be arriving here as well.

"You forgot the lamp," I huff.

"I'm…I'm sorry we left in a hurry today," says a little girl clinging to my arm.

"We agreed assigning the lamp to you would make this…issue, pop up less often," Daath says.

"Now even you are picking on me?" she says.

Daath laughs a little and apologizes.

"You are rather clumsy though, there's no denying that," I tease.

"I…I…I just get nervous…th…that's all!"

"And yo…you stutter a whole lo…lot too," says Daath.

"Woah, leave the teasing to me," I interrupt.

He laughs and then I do too as we enter the town. New players arrive with us and wonder around as we head to the inn.

"A lot of people are starting to get here," Daath sighs, "It's going to get troublesome soon…"

"Why would it?" I ask.

"More people usually means more problems. That's just how it goes," He responds.

"Ok, seriously. Leave the being negative part to me, that's all I've got after you took teasing away from me just now," I joke.

He sighs and gets his serious face going. Slightly tipped eyebrows, his mouth closed tight, his eyes barely moving, not even blinking.

"I mean it, if we don't clear this floor soon it'll just get crowded."

"Well what do you expect? They haven't even found the door for the boss, and we don't even go near that maze," I say.

He sighs again and continues walking.

"He's been…very quiet lately…" Elina whispers to me.

I nod. Perhaps something is bothering him but, if something I've learned from the past weeks is that he isn't usually the type to open up and say what's bothering him.

"Let's try to get him to talk tonight," I whisper back.

"Ok. You are going to eat something, no?" she says.

I huff and shake my head sideways quickly as she looks at me.

"Come on! You promised to make an effort," she whines.

I need to learn to keep my damn mouth shut. I take my last few steps into the inn and sit down on the nearest table. The place is filled with people sitting at other tables, there's that chattering noise that I remember from food courts in real life in the background.

"Fine, get me something along with your food."

She giggles and wonders off towards the inn keeper. Daath slowly sits down in-front of me and slumps over the table.

"What is it with you lately?" I say while poking his head.

"Ahh….I don't know…" he grunts.

"Is something bothering you?"

He shakes his head and puts his hand over his head to stop my poking.

"How many people do you think have died?" he says out of the blue.

I cough and clear my throat. So that's what he is thinking about. Death.

"Three hundred, four hundred, give or take," I mutter.

"How the fuck can you say that with a straight face?" he comes back.

"Look, as long as it's not us," I say.

He looks at me for a few seconds and then reaches for my shirt's collar to pull me close to him. People in the inn suddenly go silent and start looking at us.

"Did you forget about Charles?! What the hell is wrong with you?!" he yells.

"Don't you even dare to think that for a second," I say as I push him away, "Charles was my friend, I knew him from real life. I went to school with him, but now he is dead! Dead! What do you want me to do about it?!"

He slumps down on his seat and avoids looking at me.

"I don't know what happened to you these past days. You've been acting really weird, man, but if mortality is what's worrying you, I see no point in focusing in it if we are still alive," I say, "and it's all…thanks to you…dumbass."

He lifts his head and looks at me, he gives me a smirk. I smile to myself and sit down.

"Oh you are so full of yourse-" I say before getting interrupted.

"Hey, thanks," he says briefly.

"Yeah whatever."

A blushing Elina walks over to us with a tray.

"Geez you two sure know how to make a scene…"

Daath and I apologize in unison. She sets the tray with three bowls on the table and gives me and Daath what appears to be some kind of stew.

"I didn't ask you for food," Daath says.

"I know but you are going to eat tonight because I say so," Elina says quickly.

Daath appears surprised and looks at his bowl as Elina starts to eat. He then looks at me with a confused frown, I can't help but laugh a bit.

"Yeah haha, you better listen to her Daath," I say while laughing.

"Oh, and you too mister," she says as she puts a spoonful of stew in my mouth.

Daath starts laughing loud and hard like a hyena and Elina joins him. Embarrassed by a little girl I hide my face as I swallow the food. We continue our little late dinner and have a lively chat through the rest of the night. Before we know it its well past midnight and we are still talking in the inn's tables. Only a couple of people are nearby but thankfully they mind their own business.

"Hmm…what would you say is the thing you miss the most of the real world?" I ask.

We have gotten to a point during the dinner where we started talking about our lives back in reality. We didn't go too much into personal stuff nor names but we did get to find out some of each other's likes and dislikes. Thankfully the question I ask didn't really poke any wounds.

"I think…my doggies," says Elina, "What about you?"

"Well, I think I'll have to say music. I don't know why the musicians here just won't play something a little more upbeat. Don't even get me started on the field's background music," I reply, "What about you, Daath?"

"Hmm…what do I miss the most?" he repeats.

"Yeah, I believe that's what we asked," I say teasingly.

"You promise you won't laugh?" he asks.

Both Elina and I nod, anxious for an answer.

"Well, that sensation you got when you peed," he says.

Haha…wow.

"Nastyyy," Elina says while sticking out her tongue.

I start laughing and hit the table a few times.

"That is so true though," I say and keep laughing.

"Aww come on, you can't say you don't miss that, Eli," says Daath as he pokes her sides.

Elina starts giggling and tries to push Daath away.

"Well, just a bit hehe," she admits.

I smile and sit back a little while I have sip of water. These are the kind of moments that really make me happy in here. They make me forget that I'm trapped, these moments are the ones worth surviving for. The conversation keeps going for a while longer, so much that I lose track of time. Daath goes to his room but I decide to stay and talk with Elina some more.

"I've been wondering for a while now but, I never knew how to ask," she says softly.

"Hmm? What is it?" I reply.

"How old are you? You seem to be kind of as old as my sister."

"Well I'm sixteen, I'm turning seventeen in just a few days actually. If my memory serves me right that is."

Saying that suddenly makes me a little sad and I look at my empty mug of water. I won't be celebrating my birthday it seems. Unpleasant thoughts of the real world come to mind and I sulk a little.

"Why didn't you mention that earlier?!" she says after taking a bite out of some bread.

"It just didn't seem…important I guess," I grumble.

She gives me a somewhat stern look and finishes eating her bread.

"Mine…was three days ago."

I widen my eyes in surprise, out of the three of us I thought she would be the only one to never keep something a secret. I thought she would be the one to just say important things like that.

"And here you are getting upset that I didn't tell you," I mutter.

She looks down at the table and then to me, she laughs without meaning it and her smile turns to a small frown.

"I'm fourteen now."

I get up and grab her arm to pull her along with me. She trips a little but quickly matches my speed. I exit the inn and head a little into town to find an equipment shop.

"Hey, what are you doing? Where are we going?" she says, trying to get my hand off her arm.

"Hey, don't fight. I'm trying to do something nice for once," I say while I keep pulling her.

She stops fighting and just follows me at a brisk pace. Arriving at the shop I quickly open the vendor's menu. Elina stands idle behind me, fidgeting around a little.

"Al seriously, what are you doing?"

"You use short swords no? I interrupt, "and shields right?"

She nods slowly and I get my attention back to the shop's menu.

-Vorpal Short sword: 1235Col-  
>-Azure Buckler: 1056Col-<br>-Total: 2291Col-  
>-Buy- -Cancel-<p>

It wasn't a cheap price but I think it was ok given the reason. I buy the equipment and select it out of my inventory to give it to Elina. She takes the sword and shield from my hands and looks straight me.

"F…for me? Really?" she says with a blushing face.

"Happy belated birthday Elina," I say while smiling.

She equips her gifts and gives the sliver blade a few swings, the bluish buckler looks nice and has a really nice circular shape. I just now notice, but the sword has what looks like carvings on the sides. It makes it look great and gives a "legendary" feeling to it. Elina is smiling and giggling while trying out her new gear in the middle of the early morning. Something on the distance catches my eye, a shadowy figure running towards us. I quick look above it and I was able to see an orange cursor over its head.

An orange cursor only means bad things. Daath told us orange cursors are given to players that commit infractions, these being: Stealing, PK-ing or hurting a player outside of a safe area.

"Come here," I say as I pull Eli close to me and hide with her on the alley nearby.

A heaving man runs through the streets but trips as it gets near where we were standing close to the shop. We see the man fall down and Elina gasps. I quickly put my hand over her mouth to avoid any other sound coming out of her.

"Shush," I whisper.

"There he is! Get him!" a voice down the street says.

Two guys and a girl dressed completely in white come running from behind the fallen man. They violently take a hold of him while he tries to get up.

"We got him Klaus!" shouts the girl.

After the girl says that a man in a fancy white attire and red hair steps into our line of vision. I couldn't help to notice his cursor was the only green out of the four people standing in the street.

"Good, take him outside of town. Teach him to never steal from the White Snakes again," he orders.

Elina gets my hand off her mouth and breathes in deeply.

"You have to do something Al," she says.

"It's not my problem, for all I know that guy they are holding is no better than them."

She pushes me deeper into the alley and pouts.

"If you are not going to do something about it, I will."

Dammit Elina. I sigh and grunt loudly as I put her behind me. I take a deep breath and step into the street. I clear my throat loudly and get their attention.

"What are you looking at?" says the girl.

"Four scumbags," I say.

I have to seriously start thinking before words start coming out of my mouth.

"What did you just say?" says one of the guys.

"Did I stutter?"

The man dressed fancily in the middle starts to laugh and walks past his minions to take a look at me.

"Do you want to get yourself hurt or what?" he yells.

Elina comes out of the alley and stands behind me, I see other people coming up the street on my left. They stand a few feet away, looking curiously at what's happening.

"Leave that guy alone," I yell back.

The man dressed in white smirks at me and walks closer.

"Are you seriously going to risk your life for a man you don't even know? This guy stole from us, it's only natural for us to carry out punishment," he explains.

I turn to Elina and make sure she understands this is her fault with a frown. She steps back a little and I can hear her say sorry. I wave my hand trying to say it's ok as I look in-front of me.

"I don't give two shits about what that guy did, but you are not going to hurt him," I say as I get closer to the red haired man.

More people start coming out of the inns and pile on the sides and ends of the street. This might actually help me, a crowd might scare this sassy asshole away.

"It looks like we've got a crowd!" he says, "what do you say if I teach them and you not to mess with the White Snakes!"

Well there goes plan B. Thankfully I'm just the kind of guy who doesn't mind getting into a fight.

"Great, that will just make it that much more satisfying when I kick your teeth in," I reply.

People around us start to talk and mutter to each other.

"Are they really going to fight? In the middle of town?"

The apparent leader of the White Snakes makes a disgusted frown and takes out his sword. He places a red looking sword with a jagged blade in-front of him. As soon as he gets on a stance I receive a duel confirmation. The type of duel reads "Half Loss Mode".

"You and me chubby man! First to lose half of their HP loses!" he growls.

"Fine by me flame head," I say as I confirm the duel.

"The name is Klaus," he says.

"I couldn't give a rat's ass."

A timer with sixty seconds appear on top of us along with our names separated by the letters "VS".

-Klaus VS Alshep-

"I never meant for you to go this far! Even in this kind of duel you can die!" Elina cries behind me.

As the timer clocks down I turn around put my hand on her shoulder trying to reassure her.

"This is me doing something," I say softly.

She looks at me and nods as I reach for my sword. I unsheathe it slowly, trying to take advantage of every intimidation technique I've ever heard of.

-10-  
>-9-<br>-8-

The others player around are literal bystanders, no one says anything nor does anything to stop this. This kind of disgusts me and angers me greatly. I recall just minutes ago I was doing the same, but it's different when there's just one person as to when there are about twenty.

-3-  
>-2-<br>-1-

Klaus lets out a battle cry and starts running towards me. Thanks to the amazing teachings from Daath himself I remember something he did a couple of days ago when fighting some worms near the forest. As Klaus gets closer I sheathe my sword quickly. Everyone gasps around me and Klaus just gives me a shit eating grin. When he is about two feet away from me I kick dirt up from the floor to mess with his eyes. As soon as he closes his eyes from the dirt I step forwards and punch him straight in the face, knocking him to the ground. The feeling of punching was new, I never tried it before, but it sent a satisfying wave of pleasure up my spine.

People gasp and cheer accordingly as I stand unscathed above him. That didn't do much damage to his hit points but I'm sure his self-esteem is way below zero right now. He grunts on the floor and tries to get up but I place my boot on his chest as I take out my sword.

"Please. You can end it here, Klaus," I say.

He growls and moves under my boot trying to reach for his sword that landed just a few inches away from his hand. I slowly bring the end of my blade to his throat.

"Don't let this turn ugly, give up the duel."

He tries to free himself a bit longer and finally realizes it won't get him anywhere. With anger he brings up a screen and gives up the duel with a click.

-Winner: Alshep!-

People start screaming and cheering as they start to get close to me. I sheathe my weapon and feel as Elina hugs me from behind. Klaus gets on his feet and avoids looking my way. The man that was being held breaks free and starts running in the opposite direction of Klaus's minions. With a big smile he runs towards me and hugs me wildly.

"Thank you so much, damn if it wasn't cause you showed up. I could be dead right now," he says as he lets go.

"That was amazing Al!" Elina says.

I smile calmly and look as Klaus disappears into town with his partners. I reach for the orange cursor player's arm and shake him.

"Don't steal from groups idiot, not again. You might not get lucky next time," I scold.

He nods quickly about eight times and smiles before running away jumping in glee. I turn to Elina in the midst of the cheering crowd and smile as she does the same. I start making my way through the crowd with her when I receive a message.

From: Daath  
>To: Alshep<br>Subject:-  
>Message: Nicely done, quite the show.<p>

I look at the inn from afar and see Daath peeking out the window with his thumb up in the air. I give him a thumbs up too and walk towards the building with Elina. We make our way in and head for the stairs to get up to our rooms.

"Th…thank you Al," she says shyly.

I turn around as I'm about to reach the door to my room.

"It's ok, no need to thank me," I say.

"No, really. I mean it, thanks for everything today," she says with a big smile, "I'm sure I'll be able to sleep well tonight."

Hearing her say that makes me glad I did what I did.

"I'm glad to hear that," I say as I open my door, "You know where to find me if you need anything," I add as I walk in.

Before closing my door I see her blush and nod at me.

"See you tomorrow! Good night!" she says as she disappears into the hallway.

I close the door and sit on my bed. I take out my sword and quickly examine it. Its durability and sharpness reached a dangerous low after we were out hunting all the evening. If I had used it in the duel I would've fought with a dull blade on its breaking point. I change my clothes to something less heavy and lay on my back while letting out a big sigh. Talking about cutting it close. I'm about to rest my eyes when I hear a knock on the door.

"Who's there?" I ask.

"It's…uh…It's me, Elina," says the voice behind the door.

I get up and open the door to see the little girl with a pillow standing with her night clothes in front of me.

"Nice PJs," I tease, "can't sleep?" I say while yawning a little.

She nods and covers her mouth with her pillow.

"Alright, come in."

She enters quickly and goes straight to my bed, I pull a chair from near the window to have a place to sit down on. She has been visiting my room to talk some days now. I don't mind it, it helps her get tired and then she falls asleep. Then I also fall asleep, she is...soothing, in a way.

"So what do you want to talk about today?" I ask while sitting down.

She lies down on her belly and puts her pillow under her elbows.

"Do you really…absolutely hate this world?"

"Of course I do, as of now it's just a prison. I would do anything to get out now," I say.

"Would you…kill yourself?" she says with a straight face.

"What?" I ask dumbfounded.

What the hell is she talking about? Why did she get so serious just now? She avoids my question and starts speaking.

"You know, back in the real word. I would say something like what you just said about this one," she says, "this world as of now is just a prison. I would do anything to get out."

"Wait…are you saying…did you try to kill yourself back in the real world?" I ask scared.

"Several times."

I suddenly feel heavy and uncomfortable, I feel a huge knot in my throat. A feeling of dryness plagues my mouth and I just sit there silently.

"In here, I can walk, run, and jump whenever I want," she continues, "I have freedom I don't have in the real world."

"What are you talking about?" I say after clearing my throat, to no avail she keeps talking while ignoring my question.

"I don't exactly hate this world. Of course I fear I might die, but, I also fear I might have to go back to the real world."

I million thoughts go through my head, coming to think of it I know little about her in the real world. Likes and dislikes can only tell you so much about someone. As far as I know a significant aspect of her is that she owns dogs.

"You are not making any sense now…" I say in a low voice.

She ignores me again and keeps on rambling.

"Here, here I can do whatever I want whenever I want! I don't have restrictions or limitations. I'm someone entirely different from who I am in the real world," she says enthusiastically.

"I'm afraid of having to go back to my damaged self…in the real world," she says as her voice tones down.

"Damaged?" I ask naively.

"Here I'm not pathetic. Here I can do anything," she says.

I finally snap and raise my voice.

"Can you get to the fucking point please?!" I say harshly.

She shows a scared face and looks away quickly. I feel like slapping myself across the face for snapping like that.

"I can't move from the waist down back there," she murmurs.

I feel as if something took the air away from me and it suddenly became hard to breathe. Watch your damned mouth. Idiot. Idiot. Idiot.

"Why tell me this…why tell me this now?" I grunt.

She gets up slowly with teary eyes and starts walking around in a little circle with her hands close to her chest.

"Just recently…I felt like I could really trust you," she mutters, "I feel like I could trust you with anything now."

I move around a little in my seat and place my hand on my neck as I feel the uncomfortable knot in my throat become tighter.

"How…how did it happen…?" I question.

She stops moving and stares right at her feet. I should just probably consider never speaking again to avoid these kind of moments.

"Do you…really want to know?" she replies with a drowned out voice.

In my stupidity and complete lack of empathy or respect I nod.

"A drunk driver crashed against us when my father and I were going back home from visiting some family. My father died and ended up bound to a chair… My sister was away with my mother that day…thankfully," she says slowly as she sits down on the bed again.

I can see her crying now and she starts sobbing after a few seconds.

"I…I didn't want you or…or Daath thinking lowly of me..or any-"

I find myself hugging Elina close as she starts to cry a little harder in my arms. I pat her back and wait for a few moments as she keeps letting everything out. In the midst of it I can't help but to feel my eyes water up a bit.

"I would never, think that way of you. You are a strong girl Elina. A very strong girl," I say gently next to her ear.

She buries her face in my chest and keeps crying for a little longer. She slowly stops and I can only hear her sob a little.

"Does Daath know?" I can't help to ask.

"No," she says.

I nod and stop hugging her. She does the same and steps back a little to sit on the edge of the bed.

"Can I…sleep here tonight?" she asks in a simple question, but her whole expression looks more like begging to me.

"Yes, you can," I say.

She nods and gets into bed.

"Good night, Al," she says with a smile.

I get on my feet and press my head against the frame of the window. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. I've never been good in opening to people. I've always been cautious about how I relate to them too. I didn't know how to react to this. Was it bad that I cried? Will she hate me because I showed pity? I hope I reacted the way she was expecting me to. For a brief moment I look back at a sleeping Elina. I smile and turn to the window again. It seems I won't be sleeping again tonight. I sit on the chair and stretch a little.

"What a crazy day," I say to myself.

* * *

><p>Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Dark dark secrets people, Elina's character is an interesting one, I'll tell you that much. I'll try my best to keep giving you great content even though if that as of now means fixing my early chapters.

I beg you to leave a review if you like what you read. I accept all kinds of feedback and comments, and it's always nice to see how I'm doing from other people.

Thank you for reading! See ya next Sunday!

(Have a happy whatever you celebrate!)


	4. Chapter 4 - Secrets

**Chapter 4.- Secrets**

**November-29****th****- 2022**

**Alshep**

"I thought you said this was going to be easy," I grunt as I steady my sword.

Daath steps back a little until he reaches the wall where I'm leaning on. He sighs and lifts his sword a little in-front of him.

"My bad, I guess," he says.

We stand surrounded by stone-like humanoids that just keep pressing against us. Out of potions and food to boost our health points, we find ourselves in a dire situation. I try to step back some more but the wall behind me feels all too solid. I get a stance going and hear the whirring of a sword skill getting ready.

"How's your HP?" Daath asks me as he gets a sword skill ready as well.

I glance quickly to the corner of my eye.

"A little past half…" I mutter

Daath sighs yet again and I just sulk. It's getting to dangerous levels and I really don't have anything to heal myself with.

"Ok, we can do this, it's just five of them against us," Daath says enthusiastically.

"Yeah, god forbid they were just two right?" I say sarcastically.

Daath chuckles and attacks right after doing so. I turn to our enemies and scream before running towards them. I connect with the first one successfully doing a three hit combo before backing up from him. The sword feels light and powerful in my hands. I duck just in time to have one arm of the stone-men swing over my head. I turn to it and dash towards it. Just before reaching it I jump and stand on its shoulders. Thankfully these things are slow and it just so let's me stab its head a couple of times before it bursts into light right at my feet. The enemy I attacked first swings at me and manages to hit me. He sends my flying to the wall and I crash against it in full force.

"Fuck," I gasp as I drop to the ground.

My hit points drop to critical and they are flashing red.

"Don't overdo it! Just leave it to me alright?!" Daath says as he takes down an enemy.

I chuckle and smirk at him.

"You underestimate me," I grunt while I stand up.

"Exactly the opposite man, you are too thickheaded. You act way too much on impulse!" He yells as he stops and attacks with his sword. "You are great at fighting, but you are impulsive. Back down for now!"

I chuckle a little more and get my sword ready.

"Just watch."

With that, I dash to the golem that hit me and slam against it with my side. The impact reduces my HP some more but I successfully topple it to the ground. I jump on its chest and quickly drive my sword through its head. I pull it out and drive it once again successfully killing it this time. Quickly turning myself I manage to block the fist of the last golem standing with my sword. The impact pushes me backwards but doesn't decrease my health. In fit of rage I scream loudly and swing my sword at the stone man. After three hits and jump back and start a sword skill.

I jump high and grab my sword with both hands as I drop to push my sword on its head. I feel my feet hit the thing's face and I push my glowing sword through its face. It groans and quickly disappears. I get to the floor and get on my knees to get a breather.

"Well," I breathe in deeply and exhale loudly as Daath finishes off the last enemy, "that was easy."

Daath puts away his weapon and walks towards me with a smile on his face. He reaches for the inventory and tosses me a red vial. I catch it and look at Daath as he leans on the wall. I look back at my hand and then back to him.

"Uhm, you should use that," he says.

"You are a fucking asshole, you know that?" I say while still trying to catch my breath.

"What? Why?"

"I thought you said you didn't have any more potions!" I yell.

He crosses his arms and lets out a mocking laugh. Seriously, I was about to die. What is wrong with this idiot?

"These things just dropped it," he says.

Yeah, right. I thank him and stand up to sheath my blade. In one big gulp I down the potion and see my health slowly starting to regenerate. We take a break and sit along the wall.

"I never thought the last five floors would be this hard," I complain while stretching my arms.

"Well that's just an assumption, this maze had twenty floors in the beta. I really don't know if that number stayed the same," Daath replies.

I bring up my menu and scroll aimlessly to see if I got any new item I haven't noticed. Ever since day one I haven't seen any reason as to why I should change swords constantly like all players do. Maybe it is because I have a rare sword that actually has a lot of power to it. Even Daath himself has been using that blade he got from Horunka Village. He has been upgrading it too, so there is no sense in changing it anytime soon.

Just yesterday I decided it was time to question Daath about upgrading. To my surprise it is easy. Very easy. In my mind I had it all thought up as a very complicated thing, but it turns out all you need most of the time is a lot of Col. and a Blacksmith with sufficient skill to not screw up your weapon. Since I have no interest in Blacksmithing, I'll be leaving that to NPCs. I will not in ever let a player handle my upgrading.

"Wolf Blade plus five," I say to myself.

I close my inventory and rest my back on the wall while Daath keeps searching something on his inventory. Looking around the area I see a silhouette with a green cursor approaching us from the right. I push Daath a little and point to his right. He nods at me and closes his menu as I stand up. Daath stands too and crosses his arms. I just place one hand on the grip of my sheathed sword as the shadowy figure approaches. A black hooded woman walks towards us and stops just a few feet away. The hood covers her eyes and only the kind of pale smoothness of her nose and lips can be seen.

She doesn't say anything and neither do we. We just stand in the dim lighted corridor staring at each other.

"Are you looking for trouble?" she asks from afar.

"Not if you aren't as well," Daath replies confidently.

The woman smirks at us and reaches for the grip of her blade behind her back.

"And what if I am?" she continues.

I pull on my sword a little and unsheathe it a bit to be ready if this goes south. Daath keeps his cool and doesn't uncross his arms. He either is that much of a badass or he just didn't notice the woman reached for her sword.

"If you are, then you'll have to deal with us," Daath says.

The hooded girl takes out her sword quickly and places it in-front of her, I do the same and step forwards a bit. She holds a slightly curved blade with a rather long grip. It looks more like a hybrid between a sword and a spear.

"A naginata war sword," Daath says in awe.

"You are complementing her? She is threatening us you idiot," I grunt.

"Indeed it is. Now, are you going to keep standing in my way?" she asks forcefully.

Make up your mind woman.

"What if you join us for a while?"

Confused I turn my head to Daath and see him smiling after asking his question. I look at the girl and her lips make a weird smile.

"What?" she asks confused.

"You heard me. Join us for a bit. We'll split our earnings when we decide to go separate ways. How about that?"

I put away my sword and slap Daath over his head.

"Are you mad?!" I shout in his ear, "she was just about to try to kill us."

Daath chuckles a bit, "With that sword she wouldn't have just tried. She would've succeeded."

The girl sheathes her sword and slowly gets her hood out of her face. Smooth white skin and long slick black hair are revealed as she does this. Her green-ish eyes look straight at us. I won't lie, she is good looking.

"Hmph, fine. But if any of you two try anything funny you'll answer to me," she says.

I turn to Daath and grab him from his shoulders.

"What have you done idiot, she'll kill us when she gets the chance," I whisper.

He smiles but at the same time looks worried.

"Relax, maybe she'll help us clear some floors," he says awkwardly.

Daath pushes me away and opens his menu as the black haired girl approaches us. He opens the invites tab and sends her one. The girl abruptly stops as the screen pops up in-front of her.

"What's this?" she asks.

This is like Elina on the first day all over again. I can´t help but to laugh to myself and just watch as Daath explains that it is an invite to join our party. Dumbfounded she accepts the invite and her health bar appears before Daath's in heads up display. Her name reads "Aeri".

"You never have been in a party?" I ask.

"No, not at all. I've gone solo since day one," she replies.

"Alright, Aeri," says Daath, "did you get up to here all by yourself?"

"She just did say she has been going solo…" I mumble.

She nods slowly and her face suddenly shows anger.

"What? Do you think I need help or something blondey?" she exclaims angrily.

Daath shakes his head and waves his hands like so in-front of him. To watch him act this nervously just makes me die inside. I guess he really is scared of that girl using her sword against us. After a good seven minutes of watching Daath act pathetically in-front of a girl we keep going our original way through the maze. Aeri seems like a volatile person so I just kept my distance as she walks along with us.

"Up ahead, more golems," Aeri points out.

I ready my sword and walk past her quickly. I feel a hand on my shoulder and I'm pulled back violently.

"Sit down, leave this to me," she says.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I huff.

She laughs and takes out her sword as she jumps over the golems. Daath follows and starts attacking the nearest enemy. I quickly recover myself and join battle. Daath and I are concentrating on individual enemies while Aeri quickly zips between the others, attacking them sporadically.

I can't help but to have a bad feeling about her. She is weird and aggressive. Not that I am not like that in a way. Her behavior is just too different from what I've encountered from other players in the last month. Getting my head back into combat I stab the golem in-front of me and drive my sword up its chest doing a lot of damage. I pull the sword out and slice my foe diagonally. This kills it and I'm able to help out Daath as he tells me to switch to deliver the finishing blow.

Aeri seems to be having a blast as she hasn't stopped laughing while attacking the three enemies she is handling. She moves swiftly above and beneath them, the way she moves puts me and Daath to shame. She then stops right in the middle of the golems and her sword starts glowing. Every single one of the three golems lifts their fists in anger as they drop them down to attack.

Aeri lets out a final giggle and starts spinning with her sword extended towards the golems. We see her sword slash the three of them in an abnormally fast manner. Soon enough they burst almost at the same time and Aeri stands smiling and heaving as they disappear. She sheathes her sword and puts her hands on her knees as she takes a few deep breaths.

"Man, I don't know if that is attractive or really really scary," Daath mumbles in my direction.

"Dude, not even for a second. She is a freaking psycho," I reply.

She looks at us and smiles as she walks our way.

"You aren't like alright-" I raise my hand and poke my own head a couple of times, "up here, huh?

She gives me a stern look and gets uncomfortable close to my face. She stares right in to my soul for a couple of seconds and doesn't say a thing.

"Boo!" she shouts.

Sincerely not expecting that, my heart jump and I step back a little like a scared little girl. I hear Daath laughing loudly and Aeri flicks my forehead as she starts to laugh.

"Seriously, it's like I only get along with maniacs here," I mutter.

"Aw come on, can't take a joke?" she says teasingly as she gets behind me and catches up with Daath.

A little scared I turn myself around and start following from behind. Daath is chatting with Aeri as I open my messages to see if Elina sent anything. As I expected I find something in my inbox but it isn't from Elina. But from a red haired individual I met two days ago. I must've gotten this message before I went inside the dungeon.

From: Klaus  
>To: Alshep<br>Subject:-  
>Message: Don't dare to think our problem is over. You don't mess with the White Snakes! You better watch your back boy. We'll be watching.<p>

I chuckle a little but for some reason can't help but to look behind me quickly. I delete his message and send a quick one to Elina. I know it won't get to her until I leave the maze but it doesn't hurt to write it out right now.

From: Alshep  
>To: Elina<br>Subject: I'm surrounded by crazy people.  
>Message: Hi, just checking up on you. How are things looking back in Tolbana?<p>

I send just that and close my menu as I see a towering golem become visible in-front of us.

"Does this qualify as a mid-level boss?" says Aeri with a rather creepy tone on her voice.

"It should, it's freaking massive," I say while taking out my sword.

"Well, only one way to find out no?" says Daath.

Aeri giggles and jumps head first, just as she does this I notice a second giant golem around the corner where the first one was placed.

"Dammit, wait!" I shout.

She doesn't hear me and starts attacking the first one at full speed.

"Well, let's help this idiot out!" I yell at Daath.

He nods and we both run at the second golem that is approaching Aeri from behind. Aeri doesn't notice at all and she keeps fighting her first enemy. Daath jumps with a sword skill cooking and slices the mid chest area of the massive enemy.

"Switch!" he yells.

I slide in between its legs and slice them multiple times before coming out from behind him.

"Switch," I say.

Daath parries one of its punches barely escaping it and counter attacks with amazing speed and power. The damage output was high enough as to make the golem stagger while Daath tells me to switch again. I ready my pierce skill as I jump trying to get near its neck or upper back. Only reaching above its hip I lunge my sword and it easily slides in. I feel it connect and twist t around to make some more damage. My attack stuns the enemy and I take the chance to switch with Daath. He jumps to the wall and kicks it hard making him go a little higher. His sword glows and he comes down with it slicing it vertically. Not paying much attention to its legs something pushes me forcefully against the wall.

Daath's attack didn't destroy the golem and now it had me pinned against the wall. Its stone foot was chipping away at my armor and health. I try to move and push it away but I can't do anything. I managed to lift my arms along with my sword and started slashing the foot with a sword skill. I didn't feel pain but the incredible amount of pressure was everything but comfortable. All of the sudden my upper armor blows up into pieces and me health starts decreasing faster.

"Do something. Daath!" I shout.

Without losing a second he unleashes a barrage of slicing skills all over the golem. I drop my sword and start pushing the foot away with my arms and legs. I move it a bit but it's still dropping my hit points. My HP reaches yellow and Daath is finally able to destroy the hulking mass of rocks.

I drop to my knees and reach for my sword. I stand quickly as Daath reaches me.

"Hell, it destroyed your chest plate," he exclaims.

"Yeah, no shit," I reply, "quickly we got to help this girl out before she gets herself kill-"

I stop myself as I see Aeri take down the giant golem on her side. She jumps back and puts away her sword while smiling. Watching this girl is becoming really unnerving to me.

"Hey where's the result screen?" she complains.

I hear a loud thud behind me and turn to see a red golem with a purple cursor over its head. You've got to be shitting me. With little health and incomplete armor I stand back with my sword at the ready. Daath does the same and we slowly walk backwards to where Aeri was standing.

"This is becoming a rather inconvenient cliché," Daath mutters to himself.

Aeri walks past us and gives her back to the red golem.

"Well, this is where we cut ties," she says while she waves at us with her right hand, "Ciao!" she says mockingly.

The golem attacks her but she quickly dodges to the side and slides under its legs as she starts making a run for it.

"That bitch…" I say.

"We can take him on don't wo-"

"Oh screw you, this is all your fault!" I interrupt.

Daath sighs and attacks promptly with two sword skills. He yells "switch" and I step in piercing one of its legs and then slashing it a little.

"Let's have her joins us for a bit! She'll help us clear some floors!" I mock angrily.

Daath switches back in jumps to stab the golem in the chest, this makes it stagger and wobble on its feet a bit.

"Switch me back in!" I say.

"Alright, switch!"

I quickly get behind it and ready the piercing skill again. I charge towards its wobbly feet and push my sword through the back of one leaning along with it. What I had in mind works and I manage to get one of its feet off the ground.

"Hit him in the chest again! Knock him down! Switch!" I yell.

Daath takes a few steps back and runs towards the golem. Just before reaching him he jumps and hits the red monster with the blunt side of his blade making it fall right over my head. I roll just in the right time to clear its fall. The red golem struggles helplessly on the ground and we continue to attack it relentlessly. We drop its health to half and the thing suddenly starts glowing.

"What the hell?" I say.

"Shit, get back! Now!" Daath shouts.

I turn around and start running away but something lifts me of the ground and sends me flying deeper into the corridor. I hit the ground and I try to roll on my side to recover. I quick glance and I see my hit point reached the red beeping critical level again. My shoulder plates burst into light and I reach for my sword. I try to get on my feet but something pushing me down stops me.

"Don't worry, we got this," says a voice patting my shoulder.

I turn my head slightly and see a blue haired man standing beside me along with five other men.

"Attack!" He commands and along with his men he rushes the red golem. Daath steps back letting them through and runs to me. He helps me stand and gets me leaning against a wall.

"You are one lucky bastard Al," he says while patting my back.

"Losing two pieces of armor and almost dying isn't what I would call lucky," I say jokingly.

The group assisting us quickly dispatches of the golem and the results pop in-front of us giving me and Daath a large portion of exp and Col. Bigger numbers is always better I guess. I lean on my back and slide down to sit on the floor. I turn to the group of players as the blue haired man approaches me and Daath.

"Were you taking that thing on just by yourselves?" he asks.

"Yeah, we are just that cool," I say.

Daath nods and gives me his hand so I can get back on my feet.

"All joking aside, thanks for the help," I say while stretching my hand out to the man.

"No worries, my name is Diabel and this is my party."

He shakes my hand and his party waves accordingly.

"Well thank you Diabel," I say.

Daath shakes his hand as well and thanks him.

"Oh, I remember that guy!" says a tall bald man behind Diabel, "he is the one that socked that White Snakes guy in Tolbana the other day."

I chuckle and wave at the guy as the other guys start muttering stuff to each other.

"I heard of that," says Diabel. "Quite a show that night. Anyways, what are you two doing here alone?"

"We were just trying to see what was up here," Daath replies.

Diabel nods and thinks for a second.

"You should be a little more careful, your partner almost died just now," he says as if scolding Daath.

Daath only nods and stands there awkwardly.

"Wait, I think I know you," claims Daath.

Diabel suddenly looks nervous and interrupts Daath.

"You must be mistaking me for someone else, I'm good with faces. I'm sure I wouldn't forget someone like yourself," he says nervously.

His party doesn't seem to notice but Diabel seems extremely nervous and his face almost shows anxiety. Daath stops pushing the matter and turns away from Diabel.

"You are right, I must have mistaken you for someone else," he mutters. "Thanks for the help, my partner and I will be going now."

I turn away as well and start walking the way we were coming from earlier.

"What was that all about?" I question.

"That guy…I'm pretty sure I saw him during the beta testing period."

The way Diabel acted finally made sense in my head. Since almost a week ago, an unusual hate against beta tester had been rising. Other players blamed them for the deaths of beginners during the first weeks.

Without proof or consent some players even started tracking beta testers to "make them pay". That didn't mean anything necessarily bad until just a few days ago we heard those words now sometimes involved PK-ing.

"Do you think that his party didn't know about it?"

Daath nods and appears thoughtful, "Yeah, there's no other reason for his behavior."

I agree with him and we keep making our way out of the maze in silence.

* * *

><p>As we stepped outside I remember about the message I sent Elina. I go over my menu and open the message in my inbox with her name.<p>

From: Elina  
>To: Alshep<br>Subject: Reply  
>Message: Sorry for the late reply. Things are ok in town. Although I can't help but to feel this…sort of tension building up. I'll be waiting for you guys at the inn. I met someone I think you should meet.<p>

I sigh loudly and close my menu quickly. Daath notices and turns his head to me.

"What is it?" he asks.

"Apparently Elina has someone she wants us to meet," I sigh.

"Why that reaction?"

"I don't want to meet new people for a while," I add.

He nods and chuckles a bit.

"Yeah that girl almost screwed us over back there huh?" he says.

I give him a faint look and turn my eyes to the road.

"Fine fine I'll shut up then," he groans.

We reach Tolbana rather quickly and on the first shop I see I buy five health potions. I take one out and use it as soon as it comes out of my inventory. My health slowly fills up and I let out a shout of joy.

"Well that was freaking close," I say to myself as I turn to Daath, "Hey! How come you almost never get hit?!"

"Because I'm good at dodging and you suck at it," he says while giving me a big smirk.

With no comeback ready and shut my trap and shove him playfully as we keep walking. Before reaching the inn I stop at another shop and buy a new chest plate along with some crimson shoulder plates. They have better stats than the ones I had before so they should do just nicely.

"By the way I don't mean to pry into your personal stuff but I do feel the need to ask something."

"Shoot," I reply.

He clears his throat before continuing and puts his hand over my shoulder. I take out another health potion and start drinking it since the last didn't heal me completely.

"Have you been sleeping with Elina?"

I stop on my feet and spit out what I was drinking of the potion. I look at him with my jaw open and one eye brow slightly higher than the other.

"What?"

"Well I know she's been going into your room lately. Sometimes she doesn't come out until morning," he continues.

"So now you are stalking us? I mean me?" I say, "It's not what you think, we just talk. It helps her fall asleep."

"And then you sleep together, huh?" he mocks, "All lovey dovey, nice and close?"

"It's not like that, she sleeps on my bed and I just doze off on the chair," I say raising my voice.

"Right, the chair," he adds. "Is that before or after you two share intimate warmth?"

I sigh and push him off me.

"It's not what you think dammit. She is like a cousin or a little sister, I don't see her the way you are thinking," I clarify.

I say that but I don't think I would treat a relative the way I treat Elina. He laughs a bit and punches my arm playfully.

"I know, I know. I'm just yanking your chain here."

"Haha, you are hilarious," I say monotonously.

I relax internally as he drops the subject. He mentioning her late night visits made me remember what I discussed with her two days ago. Daath doesn't know about Elina's state in real life. Not that I would tell him without permission. But the sudden appearance of the topic makes me feel somewhat mellow.

"You ready to meet this person?" Daath asks as we approach the inn.

I shake my head and move my hands sideways, but ultimately sigh as we enter the inn.

"Al! Daath!" says a familiar voice.

Elina runs towards me and Daath and stops before reaching us.

"I'm so glad you two are ok!" she says while smiling.

I smile at her and pat her head slightly.

"So who do you want us to meet?" Daath asks.

"Oh, right! She is just over here," she says as she pulls us through the inn.

"She?" I ask.

Elina pulls me and Daath around some tables and we finally reach the one where we normally eat at. Sitting down on it is a woman all dressed in black with an awfully familiar face.

"Her name is Aeri, I met her outside town while I was hunting a bit ago," Elina says with a smile.

She looks at us and drops the bread she was about to take a bite out of. Her face is priceless but I'm not exactly in the mood to enjoy it. I feel Daath's hand over my shoulder again as he pats it a bit.

"Well, you can't really say you are meeting someone new after all," he says while trying to hold back his laugh.

"Seriously, you should be a freaking comedian." I reply.

* * *

><p>Hello everyone! Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Aeri is my fourth main character in this saga of mine. If any of you have checked my Author's profile you will see that there are two more on the way.

I beg you to leave a review, if you want to comment on the misadventures of the characters or just if you have something you just want to say, you can leave that in a review. I accept all kinds of feedback and comments, good and bad alike.

Thank you for reading! See ya soon!


	5. Chapter 5 - Looking Into Things

**Chapter 5.- Looking Into Things**

**November -29****th****-2022 (Late-night)**

**Daath**

"Why did you bring her here Elina?!" Al asks outraged.

The poor little girl stands in-front of him looking at the ground as she mutters the word "Sorry" again and again. Aeri seems to have freeze on spot as she hasn't moved and her mouth is still wide open. I can't help but to feel the urge to laugh. But for the sake of not pissing off the big man I sit down and open my menu to send a quick message to an acquaintance of mine. Quickly doing what I had in mind I close my menu and lean on the table with my arms.

Al growls something even I can't decipher and sits beside me. Elina still looking apologetic sits on the other end of the table next to Aeri. Aeri seems to be quite shocked still so I just sit there awkwardly waiting for Al to break the ice in his usual eloquent manner.

"What the hell are you doing here in the first place?"

Here we go. I calmly lean more on my arms and watch the conversation ensue.

"Wh-what do you mean?" Aeri responds.

"You know exactly what I mean! You left us to die back in the maze. And now you think you can just show up here?" Al answers.

Well she did not know Elina's connection to us but as always Al is just jumping places where there aren't even conclusions. I keep that thought to myself and keep watching.

"I met her outside town, she was having trouble so I helped her out," the black haired girl mutters.

"Is that true Elina?" I interrupt.

Elina nods shyly and keeps hiding her face from Al. I grin at her and Al keeps talking.

"So does that take out the fact you tried to monster PK us?"

Elina suddenly looks up and stares at Aeri. She appears disappointed and Aeri just tries to not look at her.

"Is that true?" Elina says.

Aeri does her best to not look at anyone and I decide it's about time for me to speak up for a second time.

"Well that isn't entirely true."

I feel Al's eyes already pinned on me and try not to mind the feeling too much for the sake of explaining my point.

"We encountered a purple cursor monster, Al and I didn't have any means to leave the dungeon. So Aeri took her chance and decided it was not worth it to stay and fight," I explain.

Elina nods and rubs her chin a little as she tries to make sense of it. Al backs off and trains his sight back on Aeri. On the other hand Aeri sits in-front of me with a smile.

"Yeah that exactly what happe-" she stops.

Her smile disappears and her teeth show, appropriately resembling what I can just describe as an angry beast.

"Are you calling me a coward?!" she yells as she slams the table.

"You did bail out on us," I say.

She stares at me in rage and then sits down calming down a little. While Al's point of monster PK-ing did hold ground, it didn't seem logical to keep badgering the girl. Nevertheless, that's just my reasoning. After all she did act a little psychotic when we were together. So my guess might be as good as Al's.

"Just say it already! You did expect us to die in there!" Al yells.

Aeri looks away yet again as if she was hiding something and purses her lips. She has something stored inside but she is afraid or ashamed to say it. Elina clearly notices this and places her hand on Aeri's shoulder.

"Come on, you can say it," she mutters.

Aeri looks at Elina and then to me and Al. She opens her mouth but closes it quickly again as she stares at the table.

"I…I was afraid of dying myself…or that one of you actually had died," she mumbles.

I feel joy at the sudden comment and elbow Al a little so he at the very least eases up a little on the girl.

"Bullshit…" Al groans.

"It's true…" Aeri mutter to herself.

"Come on give her a break," I comment, "truth or not she appears remorseful. Cut her some slack will ya?"

He frowns but thankfully stands down. I get up quickly and go buy some food from the inn keeper. I get a jug of water and four sandwiches. Quickly I return to the table and lay out the food on it. Elina starts eating rather quickly and Al takes a bite out of his food like a child who was just ordered to finish up what's on his plate.

"Is this one…for me?" Aeri asks me.

I nod as I fill my cup with water. Her eyes practically shine and she starts eating her sandwich in a rather fast manner. She suddenly stops and hides her face.

"Thank you." she mumbles with a mouthful.

"What?" I tease.

"Thank you," she mumbles again.

"I can't hear you."

"I said thank you!" she says raising her voice.

Surprisingly enough we all finish our meal in silence and sit quietly for a while. Nothing had to be said and my best guess was that we were all finally on the same page.

"Let's start with the right foot this time," I say, getting everyone's attention, "my name is Daath, big man's Alshep and the girl sitting beside you, Elina."

Aeri nods quietly and places her arms on the table.

"You guys, don't use your real names? But...you seem to be close," she says.

"We never got around to knowing each other's real names. And we agreed not to use them a few days after we met," says Al.

Elina nods and takes a sip of water.

"It's all we see in the heads up display anyways," he adds.

"Are you guys a guild or something?" Aeri questions.

"Guilds can't be created until we reach other floors," I claim. "You have to clear quest on top of that."

"Huh? What about that White Snakes guy?" Al asks.

Guild management doesn't become available until further floors. So Klaus might as well just been in a party with his little minions that day. Kind of odd to come with a name and outfits for it though.

"He must've been in a party with the guys he was with," I clarify.

"But they had outfits and a guild name and stuff," says Elina.

"Merely clothes and a name, not necessarily a guild," I explain.

An eerie silence plagues the table and I find myself with nothing else to add to the conversation that was going rather fluidly seconds ago. Aeri suddenly stand up and exits the table.

"Well…thanks for the meal. I guess this is where I say goodbye," she says in a mellow tone.

I can see Al nodding to himself smiling, as if he had won something. A quick glance towards Elina reveals to me a motive that is bound to piss off the hell out of Al.

"Why don't you stay with us?" says Elina.

As suspected Al's victory smile disappears in less than a second and I can already see him scolding Elina loudly in my mind.

"What?" Aeri says just as she was about to leave.

Watching as Al is just ready to explode I decide it would be a good idea to back up Elina on this.

"Yeah, why don't you stay? You could join our party. Until you see fit or just indefinitely."

I feel Al's about to burst rage focusing on me as I do my very best to ignore the feeling. Aeri turns around and gets herself back in her seat on the table.

"Really? Are you ok with that?" she asks cautiously.

I nod and see Al as he is about to open his mouth. Probably regretting my next move I slide over to him and cover his mouth with my hand.

"I don't think we have any objections. Although, you will have to learn to not leave anyone behind," I comment.

She smiles slightly and breathes in deeply.

"Thank you so much guys," she replies.

Seeing that sudden change of attitude "again" makes me believe she is not that bad of a person. The easy going smile and her attitude makes up for an interesting person. Only time will tell, although I do see Al and her bumping down the road frequently.

Elina sends her a party invite and I add her since we disbanded the party for when Al and I went to the maze. In the corner of my eye I know see four names along with health bars.

"Daath"  
>"Alshep"<br>"Elina"  
>"Aeri"<p>

"You better make it up to us for leaving us in the maze though," Al orders.

Here we go.

"Hey! Seriously! It was never my intention to leave you to die there. I was scared myself, I just did what you would've done if you were alone as well," she says.

Al should at the very least admit he agrees with her on that but knowing him that won't happen anytime soon.

"Oh yeah sure, I would've totally bailed on the people that were helping me!" Al growls.

Aeri shows her teeth again in that creepy yet somewhat funny animalistic way and slams the table.

"If anything I was the one helping you guys out!" she shouts.

It would seem every time we sat down at this table to talk all we did was attract attention and since this time it wasn't any different I started noticing how players around literally stopped what they were doing to catch a glimpse of the on-going discussion.

Al and Aeri exchange shout after shout and it gets to the point where the conversation stopped making sense. Elina and I sit in the middle of it trying to make some sense out of what they are arguing about.

"I bet I have a faster reaction time than you fatty!" she yells.

"You surely do, but you have nothing against my defense," Al admits trying to change the course of conversation.

"STOP!" Elina yells suddenly.

Both Al and Aeri look at Elina just after she yelled with all her might. They look back at each other and then back to Elina.

"Can't we have a nice evening for once? I know you are new to this table Aeri, but Al for god's sake. Please just one night, that's all I ask for," she says with a firm voice.

Impressed I can't help but to smile at the little girl. Aeri sits down immediately and so does Al. I chuckle a bit and have another sip from my cup of water. Like grounded children Al and Aeri don't look at each other or at Elina. Elina finally sits down and I can see faint sign of fulfillment on her expression.

Suddenly through the chatter of other players in the inn I hear someone whistling in a tone I had been expecting. I turn my head slightly to the door trying to not raise too much attention. And see a hooded player. She looks at me and beckons me over before disappearing in the darkness that lies beyond the door.

"If you'll excuse me," I say while standing up.

I leave my table behind and quickly step outside to see the hooded figure step into an alley not far from the inn. I make my way there swiftly and into the alley. In-front of me now stands the girl in hood I was looking for.

"How's it going whiskers?" I say.

"It's Argo to you, Daath."

"Wow wow, I thought you were all business what is it with the name calling now?"

She grins at me and extend her hand towards me.

"Bird won't sing if she's got nothing to eat."

I transfer five hundred Col over to her and cross my arms.

"That's not the amount we agreed on," she grunts.

"Well, it turns out I might not want to hear all of the bird's song." I mock.

She hisses at me and leans against the wall. I obviously pissed her off, but I'm not entirely trusting of her and I want my information before anything else goes out of my pocket.

"This Diabel guy you asked for, he is in Starting City right now," she explains.

"And?"

"And you have to pay for the rest of your information," she mocks.

A little pissed I give her another five hundred Col. She gets off the wall and gets closer to me as she continues talking.

"He has been going around shops purchasing stuff since he left the maze a bit ago," she mutters.

How she gets this information just baffles me, but I got nothing else than to believe what she says to be the truth.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I ask.

The girl with whiskers turns to me with a smirk and extends her hand towards me again.

"You are unbelievable…" I complain while transferring her some more Col.

Receiving more than the accorded payment she giggles and gets closer to me.

"Well, he could be nervous, but there's no reason to act that way. Maybe he is just buying stuff like anyone would," she says.

"Well that didn't help me whatsoever," I say.

"Hey hey, you know I don't give refunds," she says quickly.

"Yeah, I know you are a rat alright."

She laughs some more and walks away from me a bit.

"Hence the title," she says, "if you don't mind me asking…why do you need this info? Why only from this player?"

"I thought you only talked business," I mutter.

"You are scary Daath," she admits. "You don't plan on PK-ing him are you? Back in the beta you-"

"What I do with this information is none of your business."

She huffs and turns her back on me as she begins to walk away.

"Information is my business," she says before disappearing into the alley.

I find myself standing alone in a dark alley all of the sudden. The information Argo gave me while short and ambiguous serves its purpose. I now know where Diabel is and plan to confront him. All because of that little itch I left unscratched back at the maze. I know it in my gut he is a beta tester. And if I'm right, he isn't exactly of the nice kind.

Swiping my hand I open my menu and send a message to Al.

From: Daath  
>To: Alshep<br>Subject: Don't wait up.  
>Message: I have to go to Starting City, don't stay up waiting for me.<p>

I close my menu and start heading out of Tolbana at brisk pace. The road I now travel was dangerous a few weeks ago, but its dangers now appear weak and pathetic after almost a month of leveling. On my way I meet with a couple unfortunate packs of wolves which I dispatch quickly and without taking damage. About halfway to Starting City Al decides to reply to my message.

From: Alshep  
>To: Daath<br>Subject: Reply  
>Message: Not like I would, take care though.<p>

I chuckle a bit and keep heading towards my target. After a few minutes of sprinting I find myself without breath at the very gates of Starting City. Running in this game has proven more exhausting than I ever began to imagine. As it turns out, I'm a lucky guy and find the blue haired individual I was looking for as he was making his way out of town.

"Diabel."

He notices me and walks over to me calmly.

"Daath, right?" he asks.

I nod as I recover from my feat of athleticism.

"What are you doing here? Where you looking for me?"

"You lied to me back in the maze," I say.

His eyes suddenly show panic and he takes a few steps back. I take a few towards him in case he tries to run for it.

"How the hell did you find me?"

The nervousness turns to anger.

"You went by another name during the beta, I'm sure of it. Your avatar is identical to the one I remember," I continue, "Isn't that right, Lucius?"

His eyebrows dip into his eyes as he reaches for his sword. I quickly do so too and just hold the grip as he hasn't taken out his word yet.

"Let's not make a scene here, I just want to ask a few questions," I say.

"You really got some nerve to track me down like this, but you caught my attention. I'll give you that much," he answers.

I'll take that as a yes then.

"Why are you all of the sudden hanging out with players and not killing them?"

He chuckles and moves his hand away from his sword.

"Haven't you heard? Killing here is now actual murder," he says mockingly.

"So you are just taking advantage out of your party?"

He laughs a little and nods.

"They do the dirty work and I sweep in as the mighty knight to get all the bonuses," he admits

I move my hand away from my sword and relax my stance a little. It all makes sense now. He is just taking advantage out of having people with him to attack monsters and always go in for the last strike. Given how high up in the maze he found us and can surely assume he's been doing it since the first floor. Having big numbers reduces his probabilities of losing much health and actually puts people in the line while acts as the leader.

It somehow makes me sick and I would give anything to just punch him right now, but I need to watch my temper.

"You are disgusting," I say.

He smirks widely at me and starts walking closer as if he didn't even care anymore.

"And what are you gonna do?" he mocks, "Kill me?"

I smile to myself a little as he walks past me. He notices this and turns towards me.

"You would? Wow, you are fucked up in the head man," he mumbles.

He keeps walking outside the gates and I turn just to see him about to disappear into the night.

"Does the name Datell ring any bells?" I say while I feel a big smile creep up my face.

Diabel stops suddenly and slowly turns my way with widened eyes.

"No way…you are th-"

"That's right, I'm the player killer killer," I interrupt.

His face flusters with panic and he stares at me frightened.

"You do remember, huh?" I ask.

"You crazy bastard. Are you still doing that?"

I shake my head and cross my arms.

"No one has given me any incentive to do so," I chuckle, "You wouldn't want to be the first, now would you?"

"You wouldn't do it again. You know what's at stake now!" he yells nervously.

"Then don't try me. If I hear you return to PK-ing. I'll find you and when I do. I won't be so civil with you."

He is angry, nervous and afraid. I can see it in his eyes. He is just looking for the right chance to run away. Killing player killers was seen as an extreme way of revenge back in the beta, but it would be treated as being a murderous vigilante now. I've been trying to avoid it this far.

But if it comes down to it again, I won't hesitate to allow people that are committing actual murder to go by just like that. If I have a chance to stop it, I won't just let it slide.

"Consider this a warning, Diabel," I say with a firm voice.

Finally taking a chance he starts running into the dark road to Tolbana. I uncross my arms as I relax a little and look around. The city's entrance is desolated and I can see the light further into the city shining brightly. I can't help but to feel the city is just filled with sadness and regret.

A lot of players haven't even moved outside Starting City out of the fear of dying. This is understandable but, to give up in life just like that. It's quite saddening. This is supposed to be a place of joy and excitement. A game where you can be that person you would never get the chance to be in real life, but things took a turn to the morbid and now it finds itself turned into a horrifying game of death.

It's almost past midnight when I notice and I sigh to myself as I take in the city's gloomy vibe.

"People do change, huh?" says a voice behind me.

"Argo, for some reason I felt as if you followed me. Guess I was right," I mutter.

I turn around and see her face, I notice a faint smile and can't help but to return it.

"For a moment I thought you were going to kill him," she says.

"I wanted to, even if he says he hasn't killed anyone. Player killers right now…are criminal scum."

"You do notice the irony and hypocrisy in your sentence right?" she says, getting a little closer to me, "If you kill player killers now you would be becoming a real killer yourself. Kind of defeats the purpose don't you think?"

She is right and I know it's hypocritical and somewhat flawed to a point, but it's hard for me to overlook stuff like this. Even more so now.

"I know…" I reply, "You know me Argo, if it comes to it…I won't just stand there."

I feel her hand over my shoulder as she places herself next to me.

"For the sake of your sanity, I hope it doesn't get to that," she whispers. "Actually killing someone will haunt you, even if you think it was a good thing."

She pulls her hand away from me and starts walking away.

"Take care," she says before leaving no trace in her usual manner.

Getting slapped by reality is hard, even harder when you are not in reality. I find myself a bench and sit to think things over thoroughly. The name I used to go by, Datell. The player killer killer…I sit and take in all the comments Argo made to me. She is right, more than I want to admit. I have no plan of becoming a vigilante of any sort, Datell will definitely never come back, but, with PK becoming a rising problem it is hard to be just a bystander.

After literally talking to myself for a while, I come to a conclusion. Daath will not be a player killer, nor a player killer killer. In a lame attempt to feel better with myself, I make a silent vow of protecting my friends and my friends alone. Suddenly the things I said to scare Diabel sounded empty and for some reason stupid. Argo should consider a career in life counseling other than an informant.

A beep gets my attention, I've gotten mail.

From: Alshep  
>To: Daath<br>Subject:-  
>Message: What are you doing anyways?<p>

From: Daath  
>To: Alshep<br>Subject: Reply  
>Message: Just window shopping.<p>

* * *

><p>Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

And suddenly Daath got interesting. Haha.

Next chapter will be the clearing of the first floor. Look forward to it!

To the readers I may have, you've reached this far, why not leave a review? I accept all kinds of feedback and comments, good or bad.

Thank you for reading! See ya soon!


	6. Chapter 6 - Clearing

**Author's Note:** A quick heads up. According to the light novel "Aria in The Starless Night" and SAO's Wiki, two meetings before the fight against the boss of the first floor are held. The second one being the one were strategies and parties are discussed, this one is held on December the 3rd. Subsequently the first raid is done on the 4th. According to the Anime this meeting is held in December the 2nd and the raid is done on the 3rd. I wrote this chapter over the chronology of the light novel not necessarily in the same context as the light novels though, just keep that in mind. Furthermore enjoy the sixth chapter of "Stee1 & Sw0rds".

* * *

><p><span><strong>Chapter 6.- Clearing<strong>

**December- 3****rd****-2022**

**Alshep**

Yesterday Daath informed me and Aeri that a meeting was held regarding the soon to be discovered boss of the first floor. Later he explained there was going to be a second meeting today and that we should consider going. He asked us not to let Elina know anything about it since she didn't want her near any high level enemies just yet. That made enough sense to me so I didn't bother in commenting about it.

Daath also explained he wouldn't be attending today's meeting because of some "unfinished business" he had a little out of Tolbana. Since nothing else really popped up during the early morning I decided to attend the meeting. Tragically I had a not so wanted companion going to it with me.

"Remind me again," I sigh, "Why the hell are we, you and I of all people, going to this together?"

"Hey, Daath told me about this as well. I have every right to go," replies Aeri, "besides, if you just didn't look this way with that disgusting face of yours you wouldn't even notice I'm here."

Keeping my eyes concentrated on the road ahead of me I breathe out slowly as I hang my head a little. The background music has been driving me crazy for the last month, but Aeri was able to swoop in and take first place in the list of things I can't stand.

"If you care to notice, I'm not even looking at you," I say growing little frustrated.

"In that…you might be right. But my point still stands," she says as if she didn't finish her sentence, "…sorta," she then mutters.

"You aren't very smart, are you?" I say.

I hear some fast footsteps and the girl in black hood places herself in-front of me. Almost growling at me, she says nothing for a bit and keeps walking backwards so she would face me.

"Didn't come up with a comeback before doing this?" I mock.

"Sh-shut up! I did I just see no reason to waste such awesome words in someone like you," she says nervously.

"So you didn't?"

"Grrr…you suck," she groans as she turns her back on me.

Confused I keep walking in a straight line to what I assume is the place the meeting is going to be held in. Approaching what I can only describe as a weird amphitheater. As anyone with any common knowledge would know, these things are designed downwards making the steps towards the center stage the sits for people attending the amphitheater. I've only known Aeri for a few days now, but that's all it takes to figure out if someone is bright or not. Aeri…let's just say she is a few keys short of a piano. Either that or she is straight out walking with her eyes closed.

I manage to reach out and grab her hood as she is about to step where she isn't looking and pull her before she has the chance of go rolling down the steps.

"Why are you touching me?" she says right away.

"Fine," I say as I let go.

She steps forwards and her foot quickly notices there's no more floor in front of her. She jerks her body in a hilarious manner and falls into the first landing of the Amphitheater. She falls on her butt and quickly tries to get up to avoid any further embarrassment.

"Why didn't you tell me there was a step in-front of me?" she yells.

Quietly strangling her in my mind I jump down the first landing and sit down on the second one. It didn't take long for her to join me. She sits down next to me making sure she shoved me while doing so. It would seem we arrived just in time. Several other players arrive with us and sit down around the steps. Suddenly a somewhat familiar voice cuts through the chatter of other players.

"O-K then, we are already late. We should get this thing started," said a blue haired man as he jumped down the steps and headed towards the center stage.

Taking a long clear look at the man I notice he is Diabel. The same man that pretty much saved my ass a few days ago back in the maze.

"Hmph, what is this guy doing?" Aeri mutters.

"Everyone please move a little bit closer, my voice isn't that loud," he adds.

"Come on," I say to Aeri while standing up.

We reallocate a little closer to the stage and sit near the last landing. Other players do the same and some sit near me and Aeri. A rather weird looking fellow sits next to her and I notice how she scoots a little closer to me.

"Hah, did I suddenly become likable?" I whisper.

She doesn't turn to me or anything she just "Hmph"s me in her usual manner and ignores me. That little cute noise she makes is the only redeemable quality about her. I really do not intend to sound like an ass, but she just gets under my skin.

"The ones that were here yesterday already know who I am," said Diabel, "for the very few who don't, I am Diabel and I'm a knight!"

People around start laughing a bit, but quiet down quickly. It felt as if he had just told some kind of inside joke everyone but Aeri and I knew.

"Yesterday's meeting didn't go as I expected but I hope this one doesn't require any huge pauses," he explains, "I hope everyone by now has purchased a copy of this."

As he finishes his sentence he takes out a small book and holds it in the air. Almost everyone around me takes the same thing out and starts flipping through its rather thin content, including Aeri.

"What in the world is that?" I ask.

"It's some sort of strategy guide. It was being sold for zero Col," she replies.

"It was given away then, not sold," I mock, "Anyways, when the hell did you get it?"

"I got it before we started heading here. Funny thing though, I didn't think I was actually going to use it here," she says laughing a little.

Looking around I notice everyone was digging into their book thingies and I was left alone with nothing in my hands. I lean back as I place my hands behind me and wait for a little bit. Aeri turns her head towards me and sighs.

"Fine…read it with me. Just try not to get to close," she says.

"Am I like a sort of repulsive thing to you or what?" I can't help to ask.

She nods slightly. Well screw you too. She then moves her head a little so I can read the book as well. Just as she said it was a literal strategy guide. It depicted the stats and information of the boss of the first floor. Its name, "Illfang the Kobold Lord". A huge red beast with a face that resembled an angry dog was shown in the small book. Alongside it was information about it.

Its health which rounds up to four full health bars, its weapon which is a sword of the scimitar type labeled the "Talwar", and even its sword skills. It is incredibly detailed, so much it makes me doubt how much of it was true.

"How did someone even make this?" I say.

"Beats me," Aeri mutters.

I keep reading the information as Aeri goes through it. Apparently this boss won't fight alone, a set group of minions named "Ruin Kobold Sentinels" are to pop out and help the boss as it is engaging players. A total of twelve of the things are to get in our way if we want to attack this enemy. Taking another look as Aeri flips through it I notice a part marked with bright red text.

"This information is from the time of the SAO beta test. It is possible that the current version may be different."

So beta testers did this huh? I can't really say I have an opinion on beta testers, given I only know the one. Everyone labels them as bad persons but, Daath is the complete opposite. While sometimes cold and silent he has been the biggest help Elina and I could ever ask for since the game started. I lift my head up and notice that everyone is still reading except for Diabel who seems to be breathing in deeply. He opens his eyes and breathes in a little more before he starts talking.

"Alright everyone, let's be thankful for this information," he says, "Regardless of the source, this is bound to help a lot in the coming battle. As of right now, it has completely eliminated the necessity of scouting battles."

Regardless of the source? Would they complain just because this might have been made by beta testers? People's hatred sure goes a long way.

"The source being…the beta testers?" Aeri asks tilting her head to me.

"Oh, so you do know how to read," I mock, "kidding aside, yes. This was probably made by them after all it says so right there."

I stop myself before talking more than I should. Aeri doesn't know Daath is a beta tester and he asked me and Elina to keep it that way since he would rather avoid any unnecessary attention. She nods her head acknowledging me and turns to Diabel as he continues speaking.

"If we take this information to be true, the boss's stats aren't really much to worry about. If this were any other game people level four or five should be able to attempt this battle successfully."

I look up to the left corner of my eye and see my level which stands at nine. Well it seems I'm more than fit for this thing. I smile to myself and keep listening to what the self-proclaimed knight has to say.

"With some well thought out tactics and enough potions I believe we can defeat this boss with little to no deaths," he says, "No, scratch that! We can do it with no deaths whatsoever. That's a promise! A knight's promise!"

Just finishing his sentence people all around start to cheer, Aeri starts to clap and people follow her as the whole place turns into a big buzz.

"This is rather fast, but I think it's time we start coming up with some kind of tactic. We are going to make a raid party!" he yells, "So please, make a party with friends and people near you."

"What?" Aeri blurts out.

The creepy man beside her scoots close and almost literally leans over Aeri.

"Wanna make a party with me?" he says in an ironically creepy as hell tone.

I see Aeri's face of disgust staring right at me as her face flushes a little. With a weird squirm like sound Aeri bolts up on her feet and runs towards a group of people close to last landing. I stand up and pat my legs a little.

"Don't take it personal," I say to the guy before following Aeri.

Jumping to the last landing I reach Aeri who is near a group of four persons.

"It is a relief to know I'm not that disgusting to the point I scare you off," I say.

"You still are rather ugly, don't compliment yourself," she replies.

"Hey, you two. Come and join us. We are exactly two people short," said a tall bulky black man.

Aeri and I both walk over to him and receive an invite to the party, from a man named "Agil". We joined a small circle of now six people.

"So what can you guys do?" asks the tall man who I assume to be Agil.

"I can take some damage if necessary, my sword has pretty good stats, so I guess I'm good on the offensive side as well," I say while knocking my shoulder plates.

"Ah, I see. What about you?" he asks Aeri.

"Huh? Me?" she says while pointing at herself.

The tall man nods and Aeri looks away while letting out that "Hmph" of hers.

"I'm the fastest player you'll ever see. I move like the wind, nothing can touch me," she says proudly.

"Aren't you exaggerating just a bit?" I mumble.

She slaps me over the head and puffs out her chest.

"You better believe it."

The tall guy nods with a somewhat weird frown and turns to the group in general.

"My name is Agil, I hope we can work well together," he says.

We all greet and exchange names in an awkward manner before Diabel reaches us.

"We'll be forming parties from the letter A to when we run out of people, haha," he says.

Diabel starts examining the party of six in front of him as he starts asking what we can do. Everyone in my entire group says they have a decent damage output and defense overall except for Aeri who keeps bragging about her speed.

"I think this group is well set up to be the second tank team. That being group B, although I would like you, Aeri in one of the assault teams," Diabel says.

Aeri nods and follows him out of the party as he goes to examine the next group of people. Not a minute passes and another guy with an impressive armor set up joins us.

"Hello, Diabel said I should join you guys," He says.

Agil claps his hands to get our attention and we all turn around to see him.

"Well, we are Tank team B," he exclaims in a cheerful tune, "let's work hard together."

We all nod and shake hands, completing what I can only describe as some sort of party bond. Diabel makes a few rounds around the parties checking if everything was in place and shortly after that he returns to the center of the stage.

He explains the division of all the people in the meeting. Two tank groups, A and B. These teams will keep the attention of the boss and would try to keep up a defense against its attacks. We are basically moving duckies in a shooting gallery for it. Groups C to E are assault teams, they will focus on dealing the actual damage to the boss while taking out the sentinels. Aeri ends up on group E whose leader is a guy with really funny shaped hair. Group F is to support the assault teams and attack if need be.

A last group is made with only two people in it. Group G is made up only two individuals, a girl with a red-ish cloak and a boy with black hair who just seems too familiar to me. They will focus on helping out group E when taking on the Sentinels.

Diabel also adds that the Col will be split evenly among all the players in the raid and that the items acquired during the raid will follow the rule of "Drop to Player". This basically just means that the items will go to the player that gets them. With all explained the different parties split into smaller groups while still keeping their respective parties in their HUDs. I still have Agil's name along with another four below my health bar.

Soon enough the only ones left in the lowest point of the amphitheater are me and Aeri.

"Funny how you ended up with that creepy guy anyways."

"Oh, shut up," she mutters.

"It's still somewhat early, want to get something to eat before heading to the inn?" I ask.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" she answers.

We exit the amphitheater and go around the main plaza a bit before finding a bar we finally decide to go into. Going inside the background music is quickly changes for a more cheerfully, cantina-esque kind of tune. We head straight to the bar and sit in a pair of high chairs on its side.

"Two sandwiches and a couple of beers please," I hail to the bar man.

"Beer? I know you recently had your birthday, but I'm pretty sure you can't drink yet," Aeri says.

"Yeah well good luck getting drunk out of virtual beer," I say as I pass along one of the mugs and one of the sandwiches to her.

"Oh, for me? Here I thought you were going to eat them both by yourself," she says while smirking at me.

"The fact that you piss the fuck out of me doesn't mean I should stop being a gentleman," I reply while taking a bite out of my food.

"Hah, so you have been treating me like a princess or something?"

"Nope, just like I would treat any other girl. As long as you are eating in the same table as I am, I'll pitch."

"Haha, so your manners don't go out of the dinner table?" she mocks.

"You want to talk about manners?" I reply.

"Hmph," she exclaims before taking a long sip out of her beer, "I've never had beer, but this is what I imagine it would taste like. Funny."

"That's a weird comment…" I say.

We eat our food in a fast quiet manner and have some more beers as the day passes by.

"You know something, I don't feel drunk, but, my HUD sure is getting blurry for some reason." says Aeri.

I didn't notice before but my HUD was blurry as well. I feel fine and there definitely was no way I'm drunk. After all my, body probably lies on a hospital ward. I cringe and chuckle a bit at the though and down what's left of my beer.

"I hope this isn't like other games where they let your character drink," I say.

"Huh? Why is that?" Aeri mutters.

"Well, if they let the character drink they also kind of blur the screen and the character control becomes stupidly difficult."

I turn my head around and see a couple of guys head for the door almost stumbling as they do so. Please SAO, don't be like other games. The late afternoon turns into night and I find myself still drinking and chatting a little with Aeri.

"Well, seven beers in and I feel completely fine!" Chants Aeri.

She moves her hand near her mug and pushes it to the ground without noticing. It crashes and breaks in the ground. Some of the people at the bar turn around and cheer as this happens.

"It is really blurry now though," she adds.

"I think it's about time we head for the inn," I comment.

She gets up and wobbles a little.

"Come on, now you are just faking it," I say.

"You try standing up, you big idiot," she replies.

I move around and get my feet to the ground as I try to get up from my seat. My body feels heavy and sluggish but there is none of the other effects I've heard you get if you get drunk. No dizziness or slur of speech. Just plain sluggish movements which I can only assume is caused by the game registering our characters have had a little too many beers.

"Well then, let's try to get to the inn," I say while I start walking to the door.

I felt pathetic as I almost stumble my way to the bar's door. Outside the chilly air finally hits my face as I breathe it in slowly. Aeri is exiting the bar as she suddenly crashes against me almost toppling me over.

"Hey watch where you are going!" she yells.

"I was standing still woman!" I reply.

I help her on her feet and we start heading towards the inn. The blurry HUD bothered me greatly, it makes it hard to see where you are headed. This greatly complicates things as we just tried to reach the inn.

Finally by some miracle we are able to reach the familiar looking facade and I hear Daath's voice.

"Where were you two all day today?" he questions.

"We were in your meeting thing, we got ourselves a place in the boss raid tomorrow," Aeri says while holding unto the inn's door frame.

"Really? Are you guys up for that?" Daath asks.

"You better believe it," I say trying to mock Aeri.

The HUD's blurriness starts to fade away slowly and it finally returns to its original state after a few seconds.

"It's finally over!" Aeri cries as she kneels.

Daath with a confused expression heads to the stairs and goes up to his room.

"Do you mind waking me up tomorrow for the raid?" Aeri asks me.

I nod and start getting up the stairs to the hallway of rooms. As I'm about to reach my door I hear a creaking sound. Three doors to the left I see Elina's head popping out of her room. I sigh to myself and beckon her over as I open my door. She runs over to me and gets in my room quickly. I'm about to close the door as I see Daath coming out of his room.

"Hey, I won't be going to the raid in a group, but I don't think it'll hurt if I show up now would it?" he says

"I don't think it would, besides you would be of great help," I say.

He nods and closes his door. He is a man of few words. I scratch my head a little and turn to my room as I close the door.

"Alright, what are we going to talk about today?"

* * *

><p><span><strong>December- 4<strong>**th**** -2022**

**Alshep**

Before leaving the inn with Aeri I checked Daath's room to find it empty. Somewhat disappointed we left to rendezvous with that raid group at ten. After we were all gathered we set out to the tower. After almost an hour and a half of walking to the tower maze and going up through it, we finally stood in-front of the acclaimed big metal door. With colorful designs off beasts engraved on it a raid group of about forty four stand in line waiting for its passage to open. It's massive and you can't help but to feel somewhat powerless in-front of it.

"This feels ominous," Agil mutters beside me.

"What do you mean ominous?" asks one of the guys in our group.

"Foreboding," I answer with intent of confusing the poor soul some more.

Agil chuckles and puts his fist next to him just as I bump it with my own. Diabel makes himself visible in-front of the group and we all stiffen up as he places his hand on the center of the door. Glancing around quickly I locate Aeri and see her grin widely as she reaches for her sword. She is truly a maniac or she just really enjoys fighting.

"Let's go!" he yells before pushing the doors with all his might.

As the doors slowly creeps open, a vast room reveals itself. With little to no light in the room, we start to make our way in slowly. Group after group we enter. The room is big and you are able to see the end of it but it still seems too far apart from the exit.

We are all just about to get in when darkness suddenly fills all of the room. Just like in any other cliché boss fight torches from the back of the room start lighting up one by one till they reach the very door we came in from. With some light finally shining in the room skulls could be seen lying all around. It all just seems too cliché to me and I couldn't help but to chuckle a bit.

Deeper inside the room, now with some light, a large silhouette is revealed. Diabel unsheathes his sword and as he doe so pretty much everyone does the same. I reach to my side and pull out my trusty soon to be a month old sword.

Diabel swiftly swings his sword down and it is finally our time to move. Group A starts running and lets out a furious battle cry which a lot of people just follow to encourage themselves to charge the beast. Right behind them we start running as we shout as well.

As we got closer to the silhouette it suddenly jumped from where it was standing and landed on the ground just a few meters away from group A. With another scream they started attacking the big red beast. It was our job to get the boss's attention as we attacked and also to allow for the assault teams to quickly switch in and attack the boss while he wasn't really aware of it.

Group A switches with us after a bit of attacking, their group doesn't lose a lot of HP but they still switch us in to start drinking some potions as Agil leads us in to attack. Standing close to the boss almost makes me freeze in fear, as it easily stands two meters tall above me. It growls loudly as it swings at us with a massive axe like thing. Agil easily parries a few of his blows and counter attacks swiftly as he backs up for me to jump in.

With a sword skill at the ready I attack the towering enemy with all my might. Not paying too much attention as I do so I only manage to hit it three times before it hits me hard with its axe. The attack takes a little part of my hit points and makes me stand back as the next person in our group jumps in to continue attacking. The whole room is in total mayhem. The assault groups are focusing on attacking the boss from behind as the support ones are completely concentrating on the sentinels that pop out as we started attacking the boss.

In the midst of the chaos I spot Aeri who was moving at her amazing speed through and around her team mates to attack the boss as my group still distracts it. I take some time as we switch back with group A to asses Illfang's moves and try for a more effective set of moves when it came to be my chance to attack again.

Not much time passes and we are already able to deplete the first bar of the blood lusting beast. It growls more fiercely and louder as we keep attacking it, we aren't letting it get a breather. The switches between tank groups and assault groups are fluid and we are taking all the advantage of the slow response time of the boss.

"This is great, we are doing really good!" Agil shouts as I step in after him to attack.

With a defensive mindset this time along a parry two of its swings before counterattacking with a three hit combo. I jump back and let the next player take my place as I rejoin Agil.

"Don't chant victory so early," I say, "We still got a long way to go."

Agil seems understanding and he just nods as we wait for the rest of our group to be ready again.

Switch in and switch out we are finally down to half of the penultimate bar of the boss' health. I just switch out when I notice my health reach the yellow level. I quickly take out a potion and drink it, my HP starts to regenerate slowly. I see Aeri jump and preform a mad combo of quick devastating swings with her sword. With that we reach the final health bar of the Kobold King.

Dropping its axe and shield the beast roars furiously as it reaches out for its second blade. This is it. The last stage of the boss. We are almost there. Diabel's group surrounds the beast and is ready to start their attack. With more howling and roars Illfang raises its blade skywards.

"Get ready!" Agil commands as we all get in our defensive positions.

The demonic enemy jumps into the air and does crazy acrobatics before coming down with his blade first, attacking Diabel's group suddenly leaving them all incapacitated. Awe struck my group just stands there as we watch the hit points of Diabel's group go under the fifty percent.

"A-Attack!" Agil shouts.

Heeding his orders along with my team we all charge towards the beast as it recovers from using its skill. Before we can even reach it, it is already charging another skill. To no avail we reach the enemy too late. It had already launched an attack against Diabel, the very leader of this whole raid.

Illfang launches Diabel into the air, above all the players fighting in the room. Diabel's health drops some more, but it is nothing we can't not recover from. Suddenly Illfang jumps in the air and with its sword shining it hits Diabel three times with amazing speed. Diabel struggles helplessly while in the air.

Diabel is blasted towards the door of the room and slams against the floor with brutal force. His HP gauge flashes red and I can no longer see him so far into the room. I feel someone pulling me forcefully as he saves me from one of the boss's attack.

"Be careful!" says a familiar voice.

"Daath!" I gasp, "holy fuck, you sure did take your sweet time."

He grins at me as he pulls out his sword. From the back of the room a flash of blue light is seen. Someone died, someone just died. Diabel? No…no way. I panic a little and feel my legs shake a little as I still stand near the boss.

"We need to stand back, now!" Agil yells.

Both group A and B start to push back to the entrance. I can hear screams of agony and despair as I myself, along with Daath begin moving backwards. As we are moving backwards group G runs through us. The boy with black hair is rushing the boss with a sword skill at the ready. Beside him runs a girl with chestnut colored hair and a rapier at hand.

"They are going to take on the boss on their own!" I shout.

Agil hears me and stops running, stopping the group in the process.

"Everyone! Forget running away, Attack!" He yells

I smile at him and get my sword ready to attack. I lose Daath from my sight, but it doesn't matter. I breathe in deeply and shout with all my might as I follow Agil into battle. He rushes towards the boss first and I am just some steps behind. I see the black haired swordsman kneel as Illfang is about to strike him.

Agil runs faster and manages to block the beast's blow before it reaches the swordsman. Incredibly Agil knocks back Illfang quite some distance as he himself almost didn't move from his spot.

"Drink your potion until it's finished. Group B is the bulwark, that hasn't changed!" Agil says to the swordsman.

"Don't surround the boss! If you do he'll use his ranged skills. You can take him one by one, just use your blocking and you can make so it doesn't even hit you!" The swordsman shouts in my direction.

Agil turns to me and with a grin signals me it is my turn. Alright, let's do this. I place my blade on my right side and see it glow before turning my head to Illfang. Again, maybe just because of the sheer thrill of the battle I shout my lungs out as I jump to attack the boss. Hitting it successfully I drop to the ground and see as he prepares to attack me. I have no time to block and make a run for it, suddenly I remember the swordsman's words and place my sword in front of me as I try to read the boss' next move.

The few seconds it takes for it to ready its attack feel like minutes to me. As soon as I see the general direction in which his blade is traveling I swing my sword against it. Our weapons connect and I feel the repercussion of the strike as it travels up my arm. Sparks fly around all about as I am able to overcome the boss' swing and make him stagger a little. Needless to say, I feel like a god as I do this.

"Switch!" I yell just as another member of my group jumps in.

I jump back and stand beside Agil as he nods at me. I can't help but to grin and he does so too. Suddenly the battle takes a turn for the positive, we are engaging the boss again and everyone who does looks incredibly motivated. The swordsman that gave us the blocking tip stands back and starts shouting the directions in which the boss was going to attack.

A giggle from behind the room makes my head turn and I am able to see Aeri fighting alongside with Daath as they try to take on some sentinels. They are switching in and out with an amazing speed and they give no quarter to the enemy they are attacking.

"Get out of there! Now!" Shouts the swordsman.

One of the tanks in our group found itself over behind the boss. With people behind and in-front of him the boss recognizes it is surrounded. Ilffang smirks and jumps into the air as it roars violently. It is the same attack he used to neutralize Diabel's group. I look at my hit points and gasp as I realize they are below fifty percent. This is it…I'm going to die.

Just as I am ready to accept my fate the black haired swordsman flies over us and hits Illfang with an amazing sword skill. He makes the giant beast twist its body in the air as it plummets down on its side.

"Everyone! Full Attack! Surround it now!" our savior shouts.

I hear whirring sounds all around me and see flashes of multiple colors as my whole group readies their sword skills.

"Let's do this!" I yell.

We charge at the boss and surround it as we started unleashing our sword skills simultaneously. We start depleting the boss's HP as we attack. Almost at the same time we all back up as we let our cool down period start. We don't even start to charge our next skills when the boss starts to rise from the floor.

"It's now or never! Hit it with everything!" Agil yells from the top of his lungs.

The whirring sound comes back on and with a wild flash of colors we start pummeling Illfang again. Once again we enter the cool down period but the boss is still rising from the ground. As if everyone was thinking the same thing we all start to back up as the massive beast rises from the ground.

Suddenly, the girl with the rapier swishes by my side as she launches herself in the air to attack the boss. She does a linear strike through the boss and drops to the ground as the swordsman follows behind her with a similar technique. This was different, very different. Right as he slices through the enemy he curls his weapon and draws a "V" on the boss as he nicks through his armor. With that Illfang let out his final roar.

* * *

><p>The boss had disappeared into little crystals of light as the black haired swordsman and his partner took a breath. Everyone including myself stood in awe as a shocking silence filled the air. With a "bloop" like sound a result screen appeared before me.<p>

"Yeah! We did it!" someone shouts.

Along with that the whole crowd of people starts celebrating and hugging each other. We had won, we really did win! Daath and Aeri join me as Agil left to talk with the black haired hero.

"You ok, Al?" Daath asks me.

I nod and smile as I breathe in deeply.

"We did it man!" I say.

Aeri and Daath grin at me and we start clapping out of joy. Other people around join us in victory.

"Why?!" someone shouts successfully breaking the victory mood.

We all turn to the source of the voice and see a scimitar user standing in the middle of everyone with teary eyes. Behind him stand three other individuals who are also on the verge of crying.

"Why did you let Diabel die?!" he says with a wretched voice.

Diabel did die…the leader of the raid was gone. Deciphering where he was looking at I turn my head as my eyes meet the black haired swordsman.

"Let him…die?" he answers.

"Th-that's right! You know the bosses skills and moves, if you had given Diabel that information he wouldn't have died!"

What the hell was this guy talking about? Players all around start muttering things to each other and the atmosphere takes a turn for the chaotic. The swordsman stands next to his partner and Agil with a confused expression.

"Wait…I know this guy! He is a beta tester!" someone yelled from behind.

I heard people gasping and the muttering intensifies, a maze wielding player steps towards from my side and raised his hand to get everyone's attention.

"Even so, if he is a beta tester. Doesn't that mean he has the same information as the one posted in the strategy guide?" he says.

With his comment everyone grows quiet until another disturbed voice decides to speak.

"That's it! The strategy guide Argo gave us is nothing more than lies! That player is a beta tester after all, there's no way she would give away important information for free."

The room suddenly becomes a hornet's nest everyone starts screaming at the black haired player and I am afraid this is seconds away from becoming another fight.

"What are these shitheads doing?" I ask.

Daath puts his hand on my shoulder and puts his finger over his lips. Quietly agreeing to shut up I turn to the growing turmoil of people in-front of me.

"A beta tester huh?" said the black haired player, "Don't put me in the same category as those amateurs."

What? The player that started this whole discussion was just about to speak again but the swordsman interrupts him.

"Listen and listen well. SAO's closed beta had a low acceptance rate. Out of the one thousand people who were chosen, how many of them do you think were hardcore gamers? Most of them were pathetic newbies that didn't even know how to level up properly. Even you guys are better than them now," he says.

Every single soul in the room grows quiet and I feel Daath's hand apply some pressure on my shoulder. For some reason I feel this isn't headed anywhere pretty.

"Do not dare to compare me with those beta testers," he continues, "during the beta testing period I reached floors no one else did. I learned the skills used by this very boss and had even more information than this Argo you are talking about."

"That's not even at the level of the beta testers! That's cheating, you are cheater!" someone yelled.

People all around start shouting the words "cheater" and "beta tester", it took a few second but the shouts and screams suddenly gave birth to a new word. "Beater".

"That's right, I am a beater. And from now on…don't put me in the same category as those pathetic beta testers," says the beater as he changes his coat for another one as black as night.

With those final words the beater turns his back on us and starts walking towards the stairs in the end of the boss's room.

"That cheating bastard!" Aeri growls next to me.

"Daath…this guy-" I say.

Turning my head a little is all it take to see the face of my partner. Fueled by rage an angry frown takes over his face. Never in my life had I been so terrified to stand close to someone.

"That stupid idiot…" Daath mumbles.

The beater had long left us and Daath starts running to the spiral staircase that is the only way into the second floor for now. Spacing out a little bit I stare as he rushes up the stairs.

"Let's follow him!" Aeri says as she pushes me forwards.

I nod and start sprinting to the stairs, I see Daath reach the top and forcefully pry the doors open. With Aeri tagging along behind me, we run up the stairs. Aeri quickly passes me and keeps running until she reaches the door.

"Come on, quickly!" she yells.

I pass her as she stands near the door and start going down a huge set of winding stairs. The Beater stands at the bottom with his menu open. He then closes it and starts walking away. I can see Daath is about to reach him. What in the world are you going to do Daath?

"You idiot, you realize what you just did?!" Daath yells.

The black coated player turns to him just as soon as I catch up with Daath and him at the bottom of the stairs. Not answering he just stand there without even muttering a word.

"We'll be hunted god dammit and it's your entire fault! You just did the coup de grace on our reputation as beta testers!" Daath says outraged.

"Daath is…a beta tester?" Arei asks me as she catches up.

I say nothing and keep my mouth shut as I watch the beater and Daath in-front of me.

"Didn't you hear me back there? I'm not like you, I'm a beater. Don't think you can compare yourself with me," replies the swordsman.

Daath's frown becomes even scarier as he grinds his teeth together.

"Oh that is it…" Daath groans.

He opens his menu and furiously going through it he sends a duel invite to the beater. Shocked at first the beater does nothing but then smiles.

"As you wish then," the beater replies.

* * *

><p>Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

This chapter was incredibly fun to write (even more so to fix for some reason), I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

If you have something you just want to say or point out you can leave a review. I accept all kinds of feedback and comments, good or bad.

Thank you for reading! See ya soon!


	7. Chapter 7 - Daath's Beater

**Author's Note:** I'm pretty excited to announce that as of this chapter this story has a beta-reader. Know what the means? Better polished content! So be sure to keep this reader in your minds if you like this story, you can find the name later below. That's it for now, please enjoy Stee1 & Sw0rds' chapter 7!

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 7.- Daath's Beater<strong>

**December-4****th**** -2022**

**Daath**

"Half Loss Mode," I just didn't care anymore. I just want to fight this smug-face player in-front of me.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" says Al.

Maybe I am, but I won't stand while this guy ends tearing beta testers a new one. The black coated player accepts my duel invitation and the countdown appears with both of our names on top of us.

"Daath V.S. Kirito"

"You lied to me then? You are a beta tester as well." I hear Aeri say.

"The topic never popped up, I didn't lie," I reply, "but if you think I'm as bad as this guy, be my guest."

Her look becomes somewhat stern and I unsheathe my sword quickly. Kirito does the same and I stand in awe as we hold the same blade.

"So you go it too, huh?" I ask.

"Anneal Blade plus six." He replies.

Mine is only plus five. That thought travels around my head for way too long and I start getting a little nervous. It doesn't matter if his blade is better or not, it will all come down to who is the better swordsman. The level of his weapon only means his attack damage will be higher, but I can deal with that. I definitely can.

"Al, go get Elina," I say.

"She can wait man, I'm not leaving un-"

"Go now, take Aeri with you," I order.

His face shows unwillingness but he turns and grabs Aeri's arm and pulls her upstairs. As I refocus I notice the countdown. Ten seconds left. Kirito stands in-front of just a few feet away holding his sword with one hand just like I do. His face is completely relaxed and he even looks a little too comfortable. Is this some kind of trick? Mind games perhaps?

"5"

I relax my hand and let my blade sway a little as I get on a ready position. No big deal, I can do this. I relax my body a bit more and see as Kirito completely lowers his blade. What is he doing?

"4"  
>"3"<br>"2"  
>"1"<p>

Kirito completely sheathes his blade as the countdown reaches zero. He sighs and crosses his arms. Is this guy mocking me?

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"It is not within my intentions to fight you," he replies calmly, "I was merely waiting for your friends to leave."

"What? Why?"

"Look, I did what I did for a reason. This new thing, this term "beater" will spare a lot of beta testers trouble."

If anything it will just make things harder for us, we will be judged without prejudice. They will even hunt us down more viciously than they already have been doing. What Kirito is saying doesn't make any sense in my head.

"Why would it? Soon enough we'll all be known as "Beaters", soon we'll be all treated the same again," I say angrily.

"That, you might be right, but as of now I am the only Beater, and that alone just saved a lot of beta testers," he says calmly.

I "tsk" at him and sheathe my sword slowly. His attitude pissed me off for some reason.

"Then what was all that about? Back in the boss room, why?"

He looks at the ground and says nothing. He then goes to a nearby boulder and sits on it calmly.

"As I already said two times, it was to redirect the coming problems from beta testers to me alone," he mutters.

It takes me a bit to realize and I feel as he if he called me stupid when he said that. It was a little true I just didn't get his point until now. His plan is for the anger of all players to be directed to Beaters in this case him and not to all of the beta testers. Why do something like that? Why sacrifice your own security for that?

"Ok, I get it now. But why take the blame then?" I question.

He scrolls through his open menu a bit and takes a fruit out of his inventory. He grabs it and proceeds to take a bite of his now materialized apple.

"Simple really, I wouldn't want others to carry the burden of the one mistake I committed in the boss room," he says after swallowing.

"That mistake being?"

He takes another bite and stays silent for a few seconds as he gazes into the distant city of Urbus.

"The mistake being…the fact that I kept my mouth shut."

I find myself more puzzled than before, I don't know this guy nor his intentions and what he says just makes my mind boggle with questions as I try to make sense of what he even is trying to say. Did he really do it for all the beta testers or is it some kind of scheme that would only benefit him in the long run. I have no way of knowing this and I feel seriously annoyed at that fact.

"Do you really think you could've changed something of what happened back there?" I utter.

Kirito sighs loudly and his expression turns grim.

"I could've saved Diabel," he mutters.

"Is that it?"

He turns his face towards me with a confused look.

"I could've saved a live, why would you say something like that?" he questions.

"Diabel as you know him was nothing else but scum. A part of me is glad he is dead."

He stands up and his expression becomes puzzled as I notice some anger in it. He quickly gives me his back to hide it, but I'm more than certain I had hit a tender spot.

"You are glad…because of person's death?" he mumbles.

"Yes," I reply without hesitating.

"Heh…you are really scary."

I chuckle a bit and cross my arms as I move my feet a little, getting on a more comfortable stance.

"I've heard that a little too often in the past days."

"I know about you, Datell," he says.

I tense up suddenly and I can feel myself making an angry frown. He turns towards me again and now he crosses his arms and gives me a wide smirk.

"Why do you call him scum when you killed players?"

I clench my fist tight and try not to lunge at him.

"I only killed player killers." I reply.

"It is still player killing. Tell me, if it weren't because of the boss. Wouldn't you be planning to kill Diabel?" says Kirito.

"I let him off with a warning, the boss only made it so he never had to cross it."

His smirk becomes even wider and he walks closer to me. He says nothing while doing so and he now stands less than two feet away from me. He eyes me a bit more as I try not to do anything impulsive. Hanging around Al must be rubbing on me more than I care to admit.

"Datell, the player killer killer," he says. "too bad we won't be able to keep tabs on each other after this."

"Huh? Why wouldn't we? I assume we have a mutual friend that handles information," I reply.

"After this incident I very much doubt she'll be divulging any kind of info related to beta testers," he adds.

That makes me a little tense. Argo herself is a beta tester. So if anything she will want to disappear for a while at first. Later on, it makes sense for her not to sell any more info about beta testers since it would compromise her integrity as well.

"Alright, that I can agree with," I comment.

He nods and turns his back to me.

"Now, if you would be so kind to give up the duel."

My blood boils as I hear this.

"I don't just give up…beater," I say.

He freezes on the spot and reaches for his Anneal blade. He chuckles a bit as he turns to me yet again. I reach for my sword as well and place it in-front of me as I smile.

"This shall be interesting," Kirito says, "may the best swordsman win then."

"Yeah, this is merely a display of skill," I reply.

He quickly dashes against me with his sword glowing. This takes me by surprise but I'm quick enough to barely parry his quick attack. I feel as our swords collide against each other and I jump back to get some room between him and myself.

"So eager to hurt someone," I mock.

"This is merely a display of skill, didn't you say that just now?" he says with a smile.

I find myself chuckling again as I hear my sword making its ready whirring sound. With my sword now shining I get close to him making slow careful steps until he is near enough. Letting the system go about its business I let go and quickly connect a few blows with his sword. Tiny sparks fly off as we swipe at each other and block our attacks.

I launch another attack and he parries it with a sword skill making my blade blow back more than I expected it to. Not wasting a second Kirito attacks my chest area as I try to get away. He managed to connect 3 swipes and I find my health awfully close three quarters full.

"Nice counter attack," I huff.

He only smiles and stands there with his sword in-front of him as if he is trying to read my mind. He looks relaxed and flowing, I cannot picture myself fighting as he does. He looks so calm so…ready.

Doing some quick steps towards me he attacks me but leaves an opening for me. I dodge his blade. I duck under his blade and make my sword whir as I manage a skyward slice right on his center. A critical hit. This drops his health absurdly close to half and makes me throw a fit in my head for leaving it that close.

"You got some nice moves yourself, Datell." he groans.

"The name is Daath," I reply with anger.

We start circling each other, both with our swords at the ready, we go around each other not making another move other than the circular strafe.

"I wonder how long can you run from your past. Something tells me you enjoyed doing what you did," he mocks.

I suppress the urge to attack blindly from his taunt and keep moving in a circle as he does the same.

"Datell is dead. This is the new me!"

Filled with anger I see him move and start running towards him with the intention of attacking him. Hanging around Al definitely rubs off on me. He quickly dodges my attack and delivers the final blow of the duel right in my stomach. This drops my HP below half and I just kneel immediately, admitting defeat.

"I'll take my leave now," he says while turning around.

"Hey beater…" I mumble.

He stops for a second and tilts his head in intent of hearing me out. I sheathe my sword and get on my feet as I fumble through my pockets looking for a potion.

"Good fight," I mutter.

He returns his head to its original position and starts walking away towards the city of Urbus. It was a great duel, if it weren't because I got ahead of myself I might have even won. It's in the past now, though. I walk over to the nearby boulder and sit on it as I hang my head. I punch the rock I'm sitting on and sigh loudly, loud enough as if I were hoping someone could hear me.

A smile suddenly washes the anger away as I notice where I'm contextually sitting. The second floor, we finally made it. After a month almost, we are finally here. I grin to myself and relax as I place my arms around my neck.

The second floor is brutally different from the first. As an avid player I think it's only common sense to expect this, given that's just how games go. You are in a forest area and all of the sudden the next level is in a cave fool of lava. SAO kind of has this kind of drastic alterations but it at least tries to make the escalation between levels somewhat believable.

High peaks and an almost arid landscape displays itself before my eyes as I look away towards Urbus. The second floor mostly consists of oddly shaped mountains and weird craters. As in atmosphere the second floor is incredibly gloomy, it gives off the same feeling Starting City was giving out when I visited it not long ago. The background music changes too, for bad or worse it just makes this floor feel a lot darker.

"Daath!"

I turn my head to the stairs and see Elina rushing down the stairs, Al is following not far from her. Almost at the very top of the stairs I manage to spot Aeri. She is slowly going down the steps it looks as if she is trying to keep her distance from the group.

"I'm so happy you are ok," says Elina as she approaches me.

I smile and stand up from the boulder to greet her properly, but as soon as she reaches me she pushes me with all her strength.

"Why didn't you guys tell me you were going to the boss fight though?" she complains.

"We didn't want you worrying so much, it seemed…logical," I answer.

She pouts and Al finally reaches the bottom of the stairs.

"Where's the dude with the black coat?" he asks.

"He left just a few minutes ago."

"Did you win?" he asks.

I shake my head sideways as it hangs a little. Al looks surprised and I notice a hint of shock on Elina's face.

"Fuck…I thought you were the best player out there. It seemed like so at least…so far," Al mutters.

"You didn't get hurt badly did you?" Elina asks concerned.

I pat her head and shake my head again. She smiles and hugs me gently.

"So Mr. Beater." says Aeri.

"What?" I reply.

She proceeds to look away as she gets closer and makes that annoying sound of discontent as she get closer.

"Are you a scum bag beta tester like that other guy?" she snaps at me.

I smirk at her and chuckle a bit.

"I haven't killed you yet have I?"

Elina immediately stops hugging and backs away a few steps and I see Al raise his eyebrow. Did I just seriously say that out loud?

"Dude what the hell did you just say…?" says Al.

"Err…sorry I'm just not in the mood," I mumble, "look Aeri, I'm not a beater…although I'll surely be known as one soon…probably. I'm not like the other guy. I helped you so far anyways haven't I?"

She nods in an unsure manner and gets her black hood off her face. She grabs her chin and looks away a little. She is incredibly docile sometimes.

"Well….I guess you are right. You are…well a good man I guess," she admits, "don't say stuff like that again though…you seriously scared me."

I see Elina nod along with her and shrug a little as I think back on that phrase I said moments ago.

"So how did you lose to this guy?" Aeri asks.

"I really don't want to talk about it."

She backs away and I start walking in the general direction of Urbus. I start hearing as everyone tags along behind me. They are talking behind me but I'm too deep into my thoughts to care. Kirito, this beater… What did he mean by how long I could run from my past?

His words trouble me greatly, they spin wildly around my head as we keep walking. Datell is not any kind of multiple personality. It is just my past player character. No one chooses to act like their true self when playing games. They are a form of escapism, you go to games to become that you cannot be in the real world.

It suddenly hits me across the face. Datell the character I created. Did I use it as a surrogate? Did I use it to escape reality and become a murdering vigilante? It all made a horrifying amount of sense to the point it spooked me. I shake my head violently and pinch the part of my nose located between my eyes.

I am not Datell…I do not have some kind of identity disorder. I am Daath…I am…I'm just another character I created…

"Daath, are you ok?" Elina asks.

"Yeah…yeah. I'm fine," I struggle to say.

She purses her lips and pouts. I got too much going on my head I can't even focus on walking properly. I stop dead on my tracks and stand there without doing a thing.

"Are you sure…?" Elina asks.

I nod as I come back to reality and start walking again. The city of Urbus is just a few minutes away and its crater becomes clearly visible. As I keep walking I realize something, something that scared me even more. I lied to Kirito. As Datell I did enjoy killing player killers. It felt as if I were some kind of corrupted hero, making the right thing in my own way. In my own twisted way.

It now had consequences I would never be able to kill in this game again without the moral heaviness of actual murder. In a disgusting way….this troubles me.

"Seriously, what the hell is going on with you now?" Al says.

"I said I'm fine, I just need some rest," I reply harshly, "I'll head to the inn right away, you guys should go to the main plaza, maybe open the gate while you are at it."

Just as I say that I spring off and start running towards the entrance of Urbus. As I run I quickly message Argo. I want to talk with her…maybe she'll give me some god dammed therapy like she did last time. Tired and out of breath I reach the inn, I walk inside and see the NPC in charge of it.

"I'll rent out a room please."

She nods with a gentle smile and I transfer over the Col. As I walk to my room I start feeling heavy and get a painful headache. I barely manage to open the door and stumble inside to sit on the chair near the bed.

"I'm not having a stupid nervous breakdown," I mutter to myself.

Finally sitting down I change to my town clothes and feel relieved as the somewhat heavy armor is removed off my body. I sit and breathe in and out as slowly as I possibly can. The headache starts to fade away slowly and I feel more relaxed as I exhale air.

I stand up and peek out my window, hearing a faint sound coming from the street. Adjusting my view a little I see a few players coming from the plaza. I can hear shouts of joy and people laughing as I see more players flood the street. It seems like someone other than my party opened the gate at Urbus plaza. This would allow players waiting back at Starting City to reach the second floor without having to go through the maze. I feel happy at that fact and sit again on my chair.

I hear a knock on the door and stand up to open it. A see a hooded player right before and she smirks at me widely.

"Whiskers, that was faster than I expected," I say.

"I do move fast," she replies, "What do you need this time?"

I smile and signal her to come in.

"Well, I'm not looking for information this time. I'll tell you that much."

* * *

><p>Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Thanks to Donna Hufflepuff for beta-reading this chapter!

I like to think that Daath will eventually turn out to be one of my best characters, but that just a funny itch on my creative mind.

If you have something you just want to say or point out you can leave a review. Maybe you just wanna say something about the characters or something. I accept all kinds of feedback and comments good or bad.

Thank you for reading! See ya soon!


	8. Chapter 8 - Two Sides to The Coin

**Chapter 8.- Two Sides To The Coin**

**December-4th-2022**

**Daath**

Talking to Argo takes quite some time if you are not looking for information. Luckily I assume I have grown on her to the point she doesn't mind giving me some sort of life counseling. The life in SAO so far has been a tough one. The ever looming presence of death can be overwhelming but I guess you just have to learn to live with it, and treat death itself like a friend.

It is an odd feeling but it's all any player has for sure right now. As long as we have the NerveGear strapped to our heads death can come from everywhere. It can come from the monsters you need to fight, from the players you'll encounter, pretty much from every aspect in this game of death. The most terrifying thing of it all is that it can also come from the real world, with no warning at all. It is truly scary.

"There's really nothing to worry your dumb head about you know," Argo says.

I rub my forehead and rest my weight on my elbows as I slump a little.

"You really think so? The little time it took me to reach Urbus thoughts just plagued my brain, I'm tired and this headache seems to have come to stay," I reply.

She pats my back a few times and gets off the chair she was sitting on. For the first time in all the time I've known her, she gives me a sincere smile and puts her hood back on her head.

"Just don't lose yourself alright? You are who you are, if that makes any sense to you," she says, "character or not, you have to be true to yourself at some point."

Her words confused me somewhat more than they managed to clear up, but in some way I feel they'll eventually make sense. I nod at her and she makes her way to the door of the dark room.

"Hey, Whiskers."

She stops and turns her head to me.

"Thank you, I appreciate that you took the time to meddle with me," I finish.

"All in a day's work," she says as she leaves the room.

I sit back on my chair and breathe in and out deeply a few more times. I'm a mess of a person right now, but I hope to, at the very least, be able to pretend I'm not in a convincing manner. A beeping sound alerts me and I see it is a message. Opening it surprised me, as it from the person I least expected to receive this kind of message.

From: Aeri  
>To: Daath<br>Subject:-  
>Message: Are you doing alright? Al and Elina left to god knows where. So, how about we meet at the town's square? There's some kind of partycelebration thing going on.

I smile at the fact that even after that weird sort of quarrel we had when entering the second floor, I didn't destroy our relationship. I reply agreeing to meet her and leave my room with my weapons and armor stashed away in my room's storage. It had been a while since I felt this light. I usually go to sleep with some other shirt since sleeping in armor is quite uncomfortable, but walking around in town clothes feels really nice.

I feel more agile and swift for some reason. Stepping out of the inn, I am able to see what Aeri means by celebration in her message. This is the true meaning of a Town Opening. Players, hundreds of them drown the streets, cheers of joy and shouts of immeasurable happiness can be heard loudly on the street level. What would usually look like a deserted city back in the beta now resembles a flourishing carnival of celebration.

Walking down the street just makes me feel incredibly lively, it may sound dumb, but it really does. People all around are singing, laughing, hugging it is an amazing view. For the first time in almost a month everyone is happy. It is as if for a second everyone forgot we are trapped. I am happy and overjoyed as well. We had finally beaten the first floor and we are going head first into the second one, it is an amazing feeling. Then again, that feeling of fear and dread doesn't seem to leave my mind completely.

"Hey! Daath!"

A few steps away from me I see Aeri running towards me with something in her hand. As she gets closer, I'm able to see she is eating something out of a stick, which she holds in her right hand. The thought combined with the sight of the food itself made me awfully hungry all of the sudden.

"Having fun, huh?" I say.

She nods with a smile and finishes her food eliminating any hope I had of stealing some from her.

"This is amazing, I never thought I could have so much fun around tons of people!" she says.

"That is…a very odd statement," I reply. "Anyways, what's up?"

"Nothing really, I just want to talk about a few things." she replies.

"What do you want to talk about?"

She turns away from me and starts walking slowly, having no other choice I follow behind as we walk through the loads of people.

"So you are a beta tester, right?" she asks.

Why doesn't this surprise me…

"Yes, I am," I answer.

She keeps walking and stops at a vendors mat to buy something. I see her go through the shop's menu, scrolling up and down as she hums some song which for some reason I vaguely remember.

I knew the topic would arise but she is either tricking me or just showing the weirdest kind of interest I've ever seen.

"So can you tell me now why is it that you didn't tell me about it earlier?"

I open the vendor's menu as I start looking for some potions myself. I try to avoid the question, hoping she would change it or something, but she just asks again.

"So? Are you going to tell me?" she insists.

I sigh as I buy my stuff.

"Why is it that you want to know? Will it change anything?"

She buys something as well and opens her menu to rearrange stuff in her inventory. I'm starting to find her weird habit of asking something and then doing something else very annoying. She ignores me for a few seconds and starts humming again.

"It won't change a thing. I'm just curious about you," she says before resuming her humming.

I swear to god I know this song. She closes her menu and starts walking again. Sure enough, I start treading behind her. A group of players passes next to us. They are screaming loudly as they tease each other going down the street.

"If it won't change a thing, why do you insist?"

She huffs at me and picks up the pace a little.

"You sure have a way to go around questions, Mr. Beater."

I reach out for her and grab her shoulder, turning her face towards me.

"Don't you call me that," I grunt to her face. "And Hymn to the Happiness, really?"

Her expression becomes blank and she merely pushes me away slightly.

"You don't scare me," she huffs.

"That's because you don't know me," I reply.

"Or perhaps, because you don't let me get to know you."

I stare at her for a brief moment and hang my head.

"Fine, I'll give you ten minutes of my time. Shoot."

Aeri's face suddenly brightens up and she starts walking again as she hums another tune.

"So first things first, why did you keep it from me?"

"It seemed like the best thing to do. I didn't want any unwanted attention."

"Oh, perhaps," Aeri starts, pausing for a moment, "Do I scare you?" she replies with a smirk.

While she is a very strong and kind of psychotic player, I wouldn't exactly say she scares me. She is powerful, but not to the point of actually scaring someone off.

"Not the case, it just seemed better at the time. I really don't know how to express it any better," I add.

She nods in approval as we reach the very center of Urbus. Players still are coming out of the gate connected to the first floor. It is an amazing sight. Seeing flashes of blue light as more happy faces pop into the city. It really is something to see.

I keep walking a little behind her when she decides to sit down on a nearby bench. I stare at her for a few seconds before she pats the free part of the bench, signaling me to sit next to her.

"Something tells me you treat Al really differently," I say as I sit down.

"Al has his things but he is always mad, so I just treat him like he treats me," she says.

"You got a point there," I reply.

We stay silent for a minute or two and just take in the overall mood of the town. Aeri's body starts shinning as she changes clothes in the middle of town. Putting her armor away she now sits next to me with a long skirt and red blouse with a golden pattern over it. It accents her figure, and I'll be damned if it didn't make for a good sight.

"You look good," I mutter.

"My my, have I caught your attention?" she says with a weird accent.

"Don't take a compliment for more than it is," I snap back.

She chuckles a bit and looks up to the night sky.

"Well, second question. Why did you leave all of the sudden?"

Another question I really don't want to answer.

"Are you absolutely sure you want to know?" I comment.

"I don't know. Do I?"

"Not really… Trust me."

She hangs her head and crosses her arms.

"Alright, I'll try not to push on that matter," she says, "Can you tell me your real name then?"

"No names, Aeri. We already settled that," I sigh.

"Fine fine, whatever," she grunts, "What CAN you tell me about yourself then?"

There's very little I'm actually willing to give up to her, but then a thought arises. If I just told her a lot about me, excluding the bit when I left to talk with Argo, maybe, just maybe, she'll stop asking questions.

"I'm sixteen years old, I like playing soccer and videogames. My tastes in music aren't that interesting. I just listen to whatever the hell is popular at the time. I don't have a specific genre I like. I have a dog and three cats at home. I have a bed ridden sister who is ill that I take care of with my mother. My house isn't too big. It has two floors with limited space to do stuff, although I do have a rather big yard," I say and take a brief pause, "I worked two part time jobs in the real world, both of which I hated. I am a former beta tester of SAO and have been living along side a grumpy guy and clumsy little girl for the last month or so. Recently, I've made an addition to the group of people I hang out with, who turned out to be a rather psychotic, bi-polar, spontaneous girl. Who just happens to be sitting next to me. Oh and I enjoy long walks on the beach."

She looks my way with a perplexed expression.

"Too much information?" I mock.

"Maybe…" she mutters. "Psychotic? Bi-polar? Really?"

"You laugh while you are killing stuff," I say.

She puts her hand up to her chin and nods slowly.

"Huh… I can see why you think that now."

I look around to see Al and Elina walking together and heading towards us. All too suddenly, Aeri changes to her armor and sits up straight. And she seriously asks why I said the stuff I did.

"What brings your ugly face around here?" she asks loudly.

Al immediately frowns and rubs his forehead a little with his left hand. Elina just keeps walking with a smile on her face.

"Nothing really. I was just hoping to avoid you for the rest of the day," he snarls as he sits next to me.

"Oh, so you were on a date with little Eli," Aeri teases.

Elina's face flushes wildly as she tries to look away from us. Al's expression remains unchanged and he just leans his back on the bench.

"I-it's not like that…" says Elina.

"I'm kidding, sweetie. Of course you are not going out with that grumpy man," Aeri says, laughing a little.

"What were you guys doing anyway?" I ask.

Al puts one of his elbows on his knee as he leans over it and her expression changes to a serious one.

"Someone is following us," he mutters.

Elina nods slowly as she looks around nervously.

"We think it's Klaus's gang thing," Elina mutters with a soft voice.

"The White Snakes?" I say.

They both nod and Al quickly points towards one of the alleyways that can be seen from where we are sitting.

"See?" he exclaims.

A strange white silhouette quickly cowers back into the alley as I turn my head to see.

"The White what?" Aeri asks.

"It's just a soon-to-be guild we had trouble with some time back," Al comments.

"Yeah, Al punched the leader right in the face in-front of a crowd of people," I say.

Aeri chuckles a bit.

"Well, they have reasons to be following you then. I guess…"

Al nods and stands up.

"What do we do?" he says.

I stand up as well and put my hand on Al's shoulder. Aeri stands as well while Elina places herself next to Al.

"How about some interrogation?" I say jokingly.

Aeri and Al both laugh in a macabre way and step forwards.

"Alright," they say at the same time.

Oh…... Shit.

"Let's go," Al says to Aeri.

She nods and they start running towards the alley. Elina tugs hard on my shirt and stares at me with a worried face.

"What on earth did you just do?!" she says out loud.

I shrug as I start running to the alley myself. I manage to make the run into it just to catch Al making his way up a ladder leading to the roof tops. Hoping that Elina is just behind me, I start going up the ladder myself.

As I make it to the last few bars I can see the flat roof tops and Aeri giving fast chase to the white figure. The roofs in Urbus are roughly the same size, so it makes for a rather traversable landscape over the streets. I get on the roof top and start running behind Al.

Aeri manages to catch up with the guy dressed in white and tackles him violently. Al catches up as well and holds the man on the ground by putting his knee on the man's back. Elina appears from behind me and helps Aeri from the ground.

"Let me go ya bastards!" the man shouts.

"Who are you and why are you following us?!" Al asks.

The man struggles helplessly under his weight as Elina gets behind me as if she was scared. I pat her back gently and kneel to see the face of the white clothed spy.

"Are we going to need to use force?" I say in a low tone.

The man's eyes widen quickly as he tries even harder to get Al off of him.

"Ok, one more time. Who are you and why are you following us?" Al presses.

The man struggles for a few seconds, groaning and moving below Al. He stops moving and places his forehead on the floor.

"If I tell you…will you let me go?" he mumbles.

"Well that is up to us, but I don't see why there wouldn't be a chance," I comment.

The man sighs loudly and hides his face.

"I was merely hired by a man, his name is Klaus."

Al smiles as he hears this and pushes the man's face wildly into the floor. Elina stands back a bit more and cowers behind Aeri now.

"Are you with the White Snakes as well?!" Al yells.

"Didn't you fucking hear me? I said he only hired me to follow you!" the man groans.

"So what were you supposed to do after you spied on us?" I question.

The man proceeds to hide his face and starts laughing.

"I'm just the decoy."

I hear a loud shriek from behind me and see about eight men dressed in white as they grab Elina and Aeri. Aeri struggles forcefully but with more than three guys trying to hold her down she is quickly subdued.

Al screams loudly and jams the man's face against the floor a couple of time before kicking him away from him.

"You bastards! You won't get away with this!" Al screams.

I reach for my back and I don't remember I didn't bring my weapon with me until I try to grasp thin air behind my back. Dammit.

Elina tries to get away from the men's hold but her struggle is to no avail as she is considerable smaller than the scum holding her.

"Well well, what have we here?" says a voice behind the group of people.

Al's face is filled with rage and anger as he hears this voice and unsheathes his blade quickly.

"What do you want with them?! They didn't do anything bad to you!" Al screams.

"They didn't, but you did," says the voice as he finally steps out from behind his minions, "and they are precious to you, and I just want to fuck over your day."

The man Al had described as Klaus is visible in-front of me now. A prick like attitude and red hair, with a face you just want to punch.

"Now, let's have a little test shall we?" says Klaus as he unsheathes his sword.

He proceeds to slowly place it under Aeri's neck and presses it slightly. Al stays put and only frowns at Klaus. It seemed as he had intent of killing him right now. I will fully support his actions, but without a blade, I am useless.

"Interesting." Klaus mumbles.

Then he quickly switches his blade to Elina's throat and places it forcefully against her. Al huffs and takes a few steps forward as he raises his blade but stops.

"Haha, so it's her, huh?" Klaus mocks, "Leave the other girl, we're taking this one."

Aeri kicks away the men holding her and jumps towards Al and holds him in place.

"He can't hurt her here, Al. We are outnumbered. Let's think this through for a second," Aeri says while trying to restrain Al.

"I won't let him take her! Let me go!" Al shouts.

I quickly run to aid Aeri and hold Al's arms as he struggles to break free.

"Let me go idiots! Let me go!" he screams.

"You'll hear from me soon, Alshep," says Klaus before jumping off the roof.

His people quickly follow and the men holding Elina quickly disappear from our sight. Al stops struggling and he drops to his knees. Aeri stops holding him and sits in-front of him. I let go as well and grab my head with both hands as I try to think clearly and push the kidnapping aside for now.

"You fucking… Idiots…" Al groans.

"Come on, there were like ten of them. Even if we did engage them, aside from the fact that we couldn't have done a thing since we are in a safe zone, we would've lost," Aeri says.

"What if they take her outside a safe zone? They are going to hurt her…" Al murmurs.

"There's nothing we could've do-"

Al stands up quickly and holds Aeri up in the air with both of his hands around her neck.

"You are right! There's nothing you two could've done because you are cowards!" he yells.

I decide to intervene and punch him in the face from the side making him drop Aeri.

"No, we are not cowards. We are just not stupidly impulsive like you," I say. "Look, you big idiot, he'll contact us soon enough. I'm pretty sure he'll want some kind of ransom for her. I promise you, we'll get Elina back safe."

He clenches his fist and lifts his arm a little, ready to punch me back. He stops midway and lets his arm hang as he processes what I said.

"You better be a man of your word," he says with a sour tone.

I nod at him, helping him stand up as Aeri stands behind me.

"I got a message," Al exclaims.

I look back at Aeri who is rubbing her neck and back to Al as he stand with his menu open as he reads.

"So what does it say?" I ask.

"He wants one hundred thousand Col…" he says, "by tomorrow at the latest…"

It suddenly becomes hard to swallow as I hear this and find myself holding my head again.

"Screw that," Aeri exclaims. "Did he say where to meet him?"

"Yes, in a set of destroyed ruins, a few minutes away from Urbus," Al adds.

"Look, if the meeting point is there, Elina must at the very least be nearby," Aeri reasons. "I say screw the money, we should go get her back ourselves."

Aeri's point made some sense but doing so would be risking Elina's life. There is no humanly way possible to get that amount of Col on such short notice.

"Alright… Let's do that," Al mutters.

"Wait, what? You do know we would be risking Eli's life, right?" I say.

Al nods and gives me a wide smirk as he picks up his blade from the floor. That really wicked smile of Aeri's quickly takes over her face. Well, at the very least, these two understand each other through violence. I sigh loudly and place my palm on my forehead.

"Are you two absolutely sure about this?" I ask. "This whole idea of yours might as well turn you into red players."

"I don't care as long as we get Elina back," Al grunts.

Aeri nods along with him and looks at me.

"She is special to you, huh?" I ask.

"We've shared a lot… I'll say that much," he says.

Aeri's expression turns to a heartwarming one as she places her hand on Al's shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll get her back," she says, "I promise."

I notice Al smile a little and he chuckles a bit.

"You bet we will," I say to help the mood a little.

We get off the roof and return to the inn in order to get my armor and weapon back. I quickly change and meet with Al and Aeri who are sitting at a table with a familiar figure.

"Argo?"

She lifts her head and smiles at me.

"The word is that your friend fell into some kind of misfortune," she says.

"Hell… Does news really get around that fast?" I ask.

She nods politely and smiles.

"I'm willing to lend a hand," she adds.

I smile and sit at the table they are having the little meet up at.

"So what's the plan?"

* * *

><p>Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Thanks to Donna Hufflepuff for betareading.

So what do you guys think? I would like to hear what you like or don't like about my story. I accept all kinds of feedback and comments, good or bad.

Thank you for reading! See ya soon!

Next Chapter: "Hostage"


	9. Chapter 9 - Hostage

**Chapter 9.- Hostage**

**December -5****th****-2022 1:20 AM**

**Alshep**

I can feel the cold dirt beneath my stomach. It feels weird, yet pleasant for some reason. I'm not exactly comfortable, but it wasn't half bad. It's rather hard to explain.

"What am I supposed to do again?"

I sigh to myself, this is not the place for the kind of chatter she just happens to spill out of her hole. This is serious and there's a life on the line.

"You just tag along with me while Daath distracts the guys near the entrance," I reply.

Aeri nods and stares towards the ruins not far in-front of us. She is lying next to me. We had decided to make a silent approach from one of the sides of the ruins. Mostly unguarded, the place is just a few minutes away from Urbus. Klaus asked me for money and in exchange, we would get Elina back.

"She really does mean a lot for you…huh?" she asks softly.

I breathe in deeply and hold my breath a little before answering.

"Yes, she does. We've spent a lot of time together and we know a lot about each other. And I'll be damned if I let anyone hurt her," I reply.

"Is this at all romantic?" Aeri says.

"The most inappropriate shit comes out of your mouth every time the situation is serious," I say. "She is just the closest friend I have as of now, and I've promised her too much. These promises are on the line today. I will get her back."

Aeri's face for the first time in quite a long while shows an "I'm taking this seriously" expression. This pleases me and for some reason puts me at ease.

"One last question," she mutters.

"Fine…what is it?" I answer.

She turns her head towards me and rests her chin on her palm.

"What did you promise her? Tell me one promise," she says with a small smile.

I know for a fact she won't back down if I refuse to answer. I made a few promises to Elina. Off the top of my head, I remember a few. I would try my best to enjoy life here, no matter how hard it could be. I would eat at the very least once a day. I would try to tone down my grumpy attitude, and the most important of them all.

"I promised her she would live to see the end of this game."

Aeri smiles widely and pats my shoulder. I feel her expression is genuine and smile a bit before returning my sight to the ruins.

All the time I have been laying on the ground, I had not been able to get one thought out of my head. What if she is dead already? I had just a horrible feeling dwelling all over my body. The uncertainty of not knowing whether I was going to see her again or not was killing me. I did not have her as a party member before she was abducted so I had no way of knowing if she was still alive. I had an awful knot in my throat that just kept tightening up as time passed. The only way I would be able to know if she had died is, if things turned for the worse, to visit that monument back at Starting City. There was no way I was doing that before looking for her myself.

Daath is nice enough to snap me out of my thoughts as he kneels down close to my left side. He looks calm and collected. Hell, he always looks like that. If I admire something about him is how he is able to keep his cool at any time. Except for that one time with the so-called beater.

"Ok…are you guys sure you want to do this?" he asks.

Aeri and I nod slowly.

"Alright. Remember, try to avoid hurting these players. You have a minimum of two strikes if you choose to engage in combat. By simply attacking them your cursor will turn orange for a while. More attacks than those two and you will immediately turn your cursor into a permanent orange," he says quietly. "If you want the get your ticket punched even faster, you'll have to kill one of them. Although I hope none of you are striving for that."

"It is a risk I'm willing to take. If Klaus hurt her, he'll have to answer to me," I murmur.

Daath breathes out and puts his hand on my shoulder.

"I know you want to hurt him badly right now, but it isn't worth it, man," he explains. "Let's just get Elina and get out."

"You are seriously saying it as if it were going to be easy," Aeri mumbles.

"If what Argo told us is true? There should only be five snakes here, including Klaus," he answers.

"Can we really trust this friend of yours?" I question.

"I trust her with my life," he says.

I have not met this woman Argo before, but apparently she is an information broker and a close friend of Daath. I have no reasons to trust her, other that she supplied us with the information that pointed to what seems to be the place where Elina is being held up.

For all I know, Argo could be with The White Snakes and this is nothing but an elaborate trap to get back at me. But, given how close I am to possible death, I guess I got no other choice but to trust her.

"When do we start then?" Aeri asks.

"Now. I'll get into position and once I distract the three guys at the entrance, you two make haste and go inside," he comments. "Once you're in, there should only be one other guy and Klaus. Please… try you best no to kill them or get yourselves killed, alright?"

"Aye, aye, chief," I say, trying to lighten the mood a little.

I can hear Aeri giggle a bit and Daath smiles as he gets up. He soon disappears behind us. Aeri and I carefully watch the guys at the entrance. Three blokes dressed in white eating something near a camp fire they set near some barrels.

"There he is," Aeri whispers while pointing towards the three guys.

Daath is walking up the main road to the ruins. If I didn't know him, I would guess he was doing something stupid, but he doesn't do stuff without thinking it through. While his move seems dangerous, I know for sure he's got something up his sleeve. He stops for a brief moment and bends over as if he was picking something up from the floor.

He straightens back up and tosses what looks like a rock into the air and catches it with his fist as it comes down. His hand suddenly glows blue and even from far away I can see him smiling.

An audible "huh?" can be heard from the guys guarding the ruins. They stand up and stand next to each other as they stare into what I assume they can only see as a blue flash of light. Daath places his hand behind his head and skips towards the guys a little. He moves swiftly in a straight line and suddenly stops as he moves his upper body forwards. Just like a baseball pitcher would do.

I hear a faint whirring noise and see a line of blue light quickly close distance to the entrance as it hits one of the guard right on his face. The impact knocks him back and his friends draw their weapons.

"Haha, I didn't know you could use skills on rocks," Aeri laughs.

"Me neither, I swear that guy just doesn't cease to impress me."

Daath quickly starts getting some distance from the ruins as the three guards blindly follow him into the darkness of the night.

"We are up, let's go," Aeri says before dashing towards the ruins.

I get on my feet quickly and follow her as a draw my sword. She hits the wall with her back and stops to look around as I reach her. I stick to the wall as well and she finally decides to draw her sword. She looks at me and I nod. She nods as well and starts walking slowly to reach the corner of the wall. As we shuffle along the wall, the light from the fire makes things a little more visible. I tighten the grip on my sword as I feel I'm getting closer to Klaus. I just want to bash his head. Sadly this game doesn't really have any gore. So whatever this comes down to will have to suffice.

We reach the end of the wall and Aeri peeks quickly and hides away.

"It looks clear," she whispers.

I nod at her and she goes around the corner and hugs the wall as she gets closer to the entrance. I get off the wall for a bit and walk over to the fire to extinguish it, it was giving us too much light and the last thing I wanted was for someone to spot us from far away. I quickly kick the logs away from each other and step on the little flames as they start get dimmer and dimmer.

As the last little flame is about to go out, I notice something shine bluish near the ground. I kneel quickly and brush some dirt off the top of the object.

"What are you doing? We need to go in now," Aeri grunts.

I pick up the object and finally notice it's the Azure Buckler I gave Elina as a gift not too long ago. A sudden surge of rage runs wildly through my body as I tuck it away in my inventory. I use my sword as a support to get quickly off my knees and walk quickly over to the ruins entrance. Aeri tries to grab my arm, but I brush it away as I walk inside the dark structure.

"Don't do this idiot. Don't act on impulse," she says as she puts her arms around my waist, successfully stopping me.

"I am going to kill him," I huff out.

"Look if you go in there without thinking about it you'll probably get her killed," she says.

I stop struggling and lower my blade a little. She can be quite on the spot sometimes. As long as she is not talking nonsense that is. I grab her hands and pull them away from me as I turn to face her.

"What do you suggest then?" I say.

She smiles and giggles a little as she walks past me. My whole body tells me that number of actions together cannot really mean anything good.

"Just follow my lead, big guy," she says.

"This kind of crap you try to pull off sometimes…I really despise it," I complain.

She laughs again, now on a lower voice and gets close to the wall as we are about to reach a corridor with some kind of light shining from the end of it. A shadow coming from the other end of it becomes visible and we stop immediately to asses our next move.

"You think that's the other guy or is it Klaus?" I whisper.

Aeri shrugs and reaches the end of the wall. She peeks quickly and then with a fast turn she places her back on the other side of the corridor. She now stands next to me but across from where the light is shining off. She looks at me and makes some hands gestures. Something I might have understood if I remotely knew what the fuck she was trying to say.

"What?"

She places her palm on her forehead and closes her eyes. It is not my fault I didn't take the signing class before the operation, you stupid girl. She slides down the wall until she is almost sitting and proceeds to knock on the wall loudly. This takes me by surprise and the sudden impulse of hitting her for giving us away comes to mind. She stares at me fiercely and lifts three of her fingers up.

Looking at the light coming deep from the corridors I see as the shadow becomes smaller. Whoever is on the other side is getting close. I get closer to the wall, almost wishing the thing had a little room I could hide in. Aeri now holds two fingers up and is mouthing something. The tension of the moment makes me realize she is counting down something. The tip of a spear suddenly becomes visible from inside the corridor and Aeri drops down another finger. She shuffles towards me still on the floor and mouths the word "now" slowly.

Not really knowing what she wanted me to do, I tackle the spear wielding guy who is now positioned next to Aeri. As I'm pushing his upper body, Aeri stops his legs from being able to walk back. This helps me knock him down easily and Aeri quickly gets away from behind him as he falls. As our bodies hit the ground, I punch the man in the face. Aeri quickly shoves me away and places herself on top of the man, putting her hands over his mouth to prevent him from screaming.

"Go now, I got this ok?" she says.

I nod and kick away the man's spear to stop him from trying to reach it. With my sword in hand, I walk down the corridor that had some torches lighting it. A door in the end of it is closed. I approach the door and place my ear on it. I did not have a high listening level, but it was decent enough to let me hear some stuff through the not-so-thick stuff.

I am able to hear someone crying. It is definitely Elina. I've heard her enough times with her voice wrapped like that that it was easy to recognize. I am about to kick the door in when Aeri's words came back to mind.

I place my free hand on the knob and turn it slowly. I push the door open a little and I'm able to see into the room through the small opening I just made. It's just enough to let me see Elina kneeling on the floor with her arms tied to her back and her mouth covered with some kind of cloth. Tears are flowing out of her eyes and she doesn't stop crying. Her armor is damaged and her face has some dirt on it. I am doing my best to hold back that urge to burst inside and kill Klaus. But then, our eyes meet.

Elina stops crying and she opens her eyes widely. I can already see her smile, even with the piece of cloth preventing her from showing me.

"Did you finally stop feeling sorry for yourself?" says a male voice.

Klaus slowly comes into the picture and blocks my view of Elina. All I could see was his back.

"Did you finally accept the fact that you are going to die?" he continues. "Just a few more hours and if I don't get what I want…your pretty head is coming off."

I open the door some more, I do this slowly while trying not to get the freaking thing to creak as I do so. I can hear Elina trying to say something but her voice is muffled.

"What? Are you actually going to make other noises other than crying now?" Klaus says.

The opening in the door is not big enough yet for me to slip in. I keep opening the door bit by bit until there is enough space for me to come in without making much noise. Klaus gets closer to Elina and I feel the need to get the door open faster. He bends over and gets even closer to her.

Elina's muffled voice suddenly is replaced by a loud gasp and then the sound of her breathing in deeply.

"I am not going to die!" she yells.

The gap is finally big enough for me to step in. I do so slowly and finally get inside the room.

"You sound so sure little girl," Klaus mocks. "What makes you think your friends are even thinking of coming here?"

Never in my life had I ever felt so slow, but I need to move slowly I don't want to make too much noise or do something stupid. The few seconds it takes me to move from the door to a few feet away from Klaus feel like minutes.

"Because I know they would do anything to save me, just like I would do for them," says Elina.

Klaus starts laughing loudly and pulls Elina up on her feet from her hair. Elina screams and struggles to get on her feet. Already liking the idea of killing, I ready my sword and point it towards him.

"Face it, bitch! They already left you for dead!" Klaus spits out.

"That's…where y-you are wrong," Elina says while looking at me.

Without thinking about it, I activate a sword skill, the almost pitch black room lights up with a shiny red and the whirring sound becomes louder.

"You?!" Klaus huffs.

"That's right, you fucking bastard," I reply.

I let go and cut the distance between him and me. He lets go of Elina and rolls back avoiding my attack. He steps back and runs towards the door. I immediately kneel down and cut Elina free.

"Al, you are here."

I grin a bit and hand over her buckler. She smiles and places it over her hand.

"You really have the balls to come directly at me?" Klaus says furiously.

He grabs his odd shaped sword and charges a sword skill as he stares me down.

"Why do you always ask these stupid questions?" I say as I get Elina on her feet, "I am here, no? So then the answer is yes, now isn't, idiot?"

He makes a grunting noise and dashes to attack Elina, with little-to-no time to react I jump in front of her. His sword drives cleanly through me. I grunt at the sudden weird feeling and drop my sword. My HP is less than eighty points away from reaching zero.

"Al!" Elina screams.

His attack is critical and what little I have of health left slowly starts to drain since the sword is still piercing me. I push Klaus away and quickly pull his sword out my chest. I throw it blindly and it lands a few steps away from him. Looking down, I'm able to see the bright damage effect still on my chest. I reach for my sword and hear the sound of the sword skill ready to go off.

"Now you've really done it," I say.

Klaus nervously tries to get to his sword, but I quick step towards him and attack him. My blow sends him flying across the room and he destroys a few barrels he crashes into. I see the glow on the edge of my eye. I raise my sword, the bright red light clouds my vision as I walk towards the destroyed barrels. I see his pathetic figure moving around trying to get up and I can't help but to smile. As I get closer, he starts crawling back into the wall.

"No! No! We can talk about this wait!" He cries.

"Hah, the only sound here is going to be you crying as I cut your pretty little head off," I say.

I let go again and close in on him fast.

"Don't!" screams Elina.

She jumps in from the side and with her buckler deflects my sword. The impact of my sword with her buckler makes a blue effect spark out. My sword then impacts the wall next to Klaus's face and shatters into pieces. The sword's slick gray color turns to red and sharp pieces of it go flying everywhere. I cover my eyes and shield my face a bit. Klaus kicks me away and runs for the door. I try to get up quickly and give him chase but as I try to get up I slip and fall on my knees.

Trying to get up again I feel something pulling me back. I turn to see Elina holding my foot with her face to the ground. I stop and sit on the spot.

"Elina…why?" I mutter.

She doesn't say anything but sits up as well. I find myself without breath as I see her face. Some of the pieces that shattered from my blade still glowing red are on her face. Her eyes start tearing up and I get close to her holding her chin gently.

"My f-face feels way too warm…" she mumbles.

I softly try to remove the sharp chunks of steel of her face. She twitches as I try to pick them out.

"It doesn't…it doesn't feel good," she says as she tries to hold back her tears.

As I pull the pieces off I can see the damage effect glow beneath each piece of them. Well, I'll be damned if this game isn't fucking precise.

"Are your health points ok?" I ask.

She nods and moves her face a bit but I hold her steady as I keep removing the shattered blade.

"I didn't want you to kill anyone…I'm sorry…I-I even br-broke your sword," she says.

"Don't say something like that, it was just a sword. I can get a new one," I whisper. "But your face, that I can't get a replacement of." I say jokingly.

She laughs a little but stops quickly as I pull a large chunk out.

"I'm so sorry Eli…" I mutter as I pull out the last piece.

I let go of her chin and she lifts her hands to touch her face.

"Something still feels warm…near here," she says as she rubs near her neck.

I tilt her head a little to the right and see a big piece of the sword buried in the part between her shoulder and the nape of her neck. It's way too big.

"Is there a still piece there? My health points are still going down really really slowly," she says.

"Yeah, er, I'll try to pull this one out ok?" I say. "Try not to move."

She nods and tilts her head a little more so I can get a view of the large chunk. I place my fingers on it and start pulling it. The piece doesn't move and I end up pulling on Elina more than I do on the piece of sword.

"It won't move…I don't get it," I exclaim, "ok..uhm hold on a bit."

I get on my feet and place my left hand on her shoulder and my right hand grabbing the shattered piece.

"Ok, grab unto my leg ok?"

"What?" she replies.

"Just do it, this one is in deep apparently," I say.

She holds my leg close and I start pulling on the chunk. She complains a little and with one forceful pull I manage to take out the almost five centimeter long piece of her neck. I toss it away and help her on her feet.

"Al! Eli! Are you guys ok!?" Aeri shouts as she runs into the room.

She sees us and her face lightens up with a smile.

"Oh thank god you guys are ok! I saw Al's health go down quickly and I freaked out. Then that Klaus dude came out running," she explains.

"We are ok," Elina says softly as she smiles.

We all brighten up and Aeri tosses me a potion. I catch and quickly drink it down. My health points go up steadily and I pick up what's left of my broken sword. I put it in my inventory and stretch a little.

"Is Daath ok?" Elina asks.

Aeri nods and opens a message.

"He says he managed to lose the guys when they were almost getting to Urbus," she says. "Although, he says we should meet back at Tolbana."

"Makes sense. I guess it's only dangerous right now to be up here," I say.

Elina nods and I scratch my head before letting out a big sigh.

"It is a long walk," Aeri sighs.

I chuckle a bit and so does Elina.

"Then we should get going," Elina says.

We make our way out of the ruins and start heading to Urbus so we can take the Gate down to Starting City. Aeri gets a little head start on me and, Elina. She walks quite a bit far from us.

"Thanks, Al," says Elina quietly.

"No problem," I say with a smile.

She smiles back at me and turns her head to the road. We keep walking for a bit and Urbus becomes bigger as we approach it. Suddenly, I feel Elina's hand prodding my side. She prods me again and opens her palm.

"Heh, you can talk. You know that right?" I tease.

I open my hand and hold hers. It's been a month now, but I'm finally realizing life here really can't be that bad.

* * *

><p>Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, also that you noticed we are rocking a new cover picture, not much of a change but I think I like it better.

Thanks to Donna Hufflepuff for Beta-reading!

I would like to thank all of you guys who have followed and faved this story it really means a lot. I would like to know what you guys think so far, what you like or don't like, it really helps and would make me quite happy. So please leave a review if you can.

Wanna see some rough sketches of our characters? Of course you do. Go down to my profile to find them, tell me what you think.

Thank you for reading! See ya soon!

Next chapter: "Where We Stand"


	10. Chapter 10 - Where We Stand

**Chapter 10.- Where We Stand**

**December-17th-2022**

**Alshep**

"Would you please stop moving so much?"

"Oh shut it, fatso. It's your fault that we are stuck here anyways."

"What is it with you and my appearance? I'm seriously not that fat."

"Well, Daath is skinnier than you, so that by default makes you the fat one of the group."

"Screw yo- God dammit stop moving!"

"No, You sto- ahhh!"

We make a loud thud as we reach the bottom of the crevasse. The game's system does not allow us to feel pain, but I can't help to grunt and complain as my back hits the ground and then Aeri falls right on my stomach. Aeri rolls off of me also complaining as if the fall really had hurt.

Ever since we fell into the opening, I knew this wasn't going to end well. The fall at first was wide, we fell about five meters before it started to get narrow. To the point we got stuck between the walls. All the tossing and nudging around must've made what was left of the wall loose and then made us fall into some sort of cave.

"I'm almost down to half of my HP," Aeri mutters. "This is all your damn fault!"

"Yeah, of course it is. You were totally watching where you were going and you totally did not pull me along with you when you started falling," I mumble.

She hisses at me and turns her head as she stands up. I get on my feet as well and look around. A thick darkness surrounds me and Aeri. A long beam of light pierces through the crevasse all the way down making it the only source of light within what I can only assume is a cave.

Aeri fumbles a bit around her pockets and takes out a lantern. She lights it up and holds it a little in-front of her making the darkness go away as the light burns through it.

"Well, at the very least you have increased your usefulness." I tease.

"Har har, at the very least you've toned down your insults," she replies.

"It's more like I am censoring myself. I still meant the insult."

She changes her expression to a blank one and starts walking around the area. I stay in the same spot where I stood up and look directly above me. I can see the sun shining and I catch an eagle flying by through the narrow space in the fissure.

"Hey, look. It looks like a path," Aeri says.

I turn around and see her pointing down a tunnel a few feet away from me.

"Is that safe?" I ponder.

"Well, there's no other way out of this place."

"That doesn't answer my question at all," I reply.

"I wasn't trying to answer your question," she says with a smile.

"Fine, fine. But don't go whining if it isn't the right wa-"

I interrupt myself as I hear the scream of a girl followed by a loud thud behind me. I turn around quickly unsheathe my rapier and Aeri quickly moves next to me with her sword at hand.

"Oh dear, that was a horrible idea," says the girl sitting on the floor.

Aeri and I both stand at ease a little but keep our weapons ready, just in case. She stands up and dusts off her skirt and shoulders. She breathes in deeply and looks directly at us. Her hair is almost golden, a pretty strong tone of blonde and is tied up in a fancy way as it hangs from behind her head. She wears a white skirt and a grayish top with a shoulder plate. It looks somewhat odd but it somehow fits. A rapier hangs from her side, but hers is unbelievably thin almost resembles a fencing sword.

"Excuse me," she says with a soft voice, "did you two fall down here as well?"

"Well, that is pretty darn obvi-"

Aeri places her free hand over my mouth, stopping me from completing my sentence. She frowns at me, but I know exactly what she is trying to say. Shut the hell up.

"Yeah, we did," Aeri replies.

"I was not looking where I was headed and in a horrible twist of fate, I stumbled into this horrendous pit," she responds.

"Crevasse…" I mutter to myself.

"Where are my manners, my name is Kayla. It is nice to make your acquaintance uhm…"

"Aeri, and this big guy here is Al," she says while patting my back.

"You are serious mess of mood swings, you know that, right?" I mutter.

"Splendid," Kayla says. "Do you happen to know the way out of here?"

She says this and holds her hands close to her chest. Her mannerisms strike me as a little odd, somewhat princess-like. Almost as if she was raised like one, which was kind of funny since I only expected to see this kind of behavior in a tv show or some work of fiction. It is entertaining for some reason.

"We were just about to head down that path," I say while pointing to the tunnel.

Kayla presses her index finger against her lips and seems to think for a bit.

"Why are you two pointing at me with your weapons?" she says. "Am I an unwanted presence?" she adds.

I just notice I am indeed pointing my rapier at her. Aeri seems to notice as well and sheathes her sword rather quickly. I do the same and clear my throat.

"Just a precaution," I say.

"You mustn't judge a book by its cover," she says.

"Safer to always do the opposite," I whisper to myself.

I nod slowly and scratch my head a little. Kayla approaches me and Aeri slowly, I notice Aeri reaching for the back of her head and see her open her hand as it gets closer to the grip of her sword. I guess she is just nervous.

Kayla is soon enough in-front of us and Aeri slowly relaxes her hand and lets it drop to her side.

"Your friend doesn't seem to trust me much," Kayla comments.

"Well, I don't either. After all, we just introduced ourselves," I say.

"My my, you are rather harsh."

"That's just the way he is, stick around long enough and you might even get to know the uneducated animal he is," Aeri mocks.

"Oh goodness, do you speak like that often?" Kayla mumbles.

I chuckle a bit and turn my back on Aeri and Kayla.

"I like you," I say as I walk to the tunnel.

Just as I approach the tunnel I notice something that felt really off. There wasn't any background music at all. Complete and utter silence aside from my steps and the voices of Aeri and Kayla discussing something not far from me is all I can hear.

"Hey Aeri, mind if I borrow that lantern of yours?"

"Be my guest," she says as she tosses it my way.

I catch and smile to myself because I'm sure I looked pretty cool doing so. I rest my right arm just above the opening of the tunnel and bend over to peek in with the lantern on my left hand. The light didn't help me much, I could only see a few feet into the damn thing. My whole body is screaming that it is a bad idea to even think of going in, but a quick look around reminds me that it is the only path available.

Kayla and Aeri catch up to me and they giggle as I turn to face them.

"You two besties all of the sudden or what?"

"None of your business Al," Aeri snaps.

"It's rude to keep someone out of the loop. Just throwing that out there," I huff.

"Is this the tunnel you spoke of?" Kayla asks as she leans to see down the tunnel.

I nod and she straightens up. Something about her is just attracting, I don't know if it is the strong yellow tone of her hair or just her figure. She is rather good looking, maybe even prettier than Aeri. My mind is going off track.

"We gain nothing if we stand here like idiots," Aeri says as she slips in between me and Kayla.

She crouches and starts making her way inside the tunnel.

"Shit," she shouts.

"Lantern?" I say smugly

"Just give it to me," she demands.

She sticks her hand out of the tunnel and I put the lantern on her palm. She proceeds to go back inside and goes in a little farther. Kayla looks at me and chuckles a bit.

"She isn't the brightest tool in the shed," I joke.

Kayla laughs a bit and crouches as well to start making her way into the tunnel.

"It gets a little narrow farther ahead," Aeri shouts.

Her voice echoes as it comes out on my end.

"Good luck, Al," she says laughing.

I sigh and bend my knees to get a view of the tunnel. I can see a faint light in-front of Kayla. Aeri really worked her way in fast. I start making little steps little by little treading my hand on the left wall to keep my balance. Kayla suddenly stops and gets on her knees and hands. Giving me a rather lovely view of her bottom, I can't help but to smile. This smile is quickly erased as she kicks me hard in the face.

"What the hell was that for?!" I yell.

"I guess your partner was right," she mutters.

"Hey look, it isn't my fault you just bent over."

"You could be a gentleman and look the other way," she replies.

"Forget it, I'm sorry. Just keep moving alright? I'll mind my own business."

She "hmph"s me just like Aeri does and keeps crawling in. I'm a man of my word so I get on my knees and hands and look down to my hands as I place one in-front of the other to make my way through the narrow path.

"It widens a little over here," I hear Aeri say.

We keep crawling for a bit and I finally reach the part Aeri said. I get on my toes and press my hands on the wall as I keep moving.

"Do you mind if I ask a few questions about you two?" Kayla says.

"I don't see why not," Aeri says.

"Shoot," I reply.

"How long have you been together?" Kayla says as she moves around in-front of me.

"Woah, woah! We are not together," Aeri says quickly.

"She means as in a group idiot, not a couple," I comment.

"Oh, ok. How long has it been? A few weeks, right?"

"Yeah. Kind of hard to pinpoint though," I say.

"We are party members with another two," Aeri replies.

"A guy named Daath and another girl, Elina," I say.

Aeri starts laughing a little.

"Girl is a harsh way to refer to your girlfriend, don't you think?" she chuckles.

"Oh, you have a girlfriend Al?" Kayla curiously asks.

"She is not my girlfriend… We…we just enjoy each other's company."

"Call it whatever you want, you know it to be true," Aeri teases.

"Just shut up and keep moving," I grunt.

She and Kayla laugh a bit as they pick up the pace. I wouldn't exactly call the relationship me and Elina have as boyfriend and girlfriend. I mean, sure. We care about each other a lot and spend a ton of time together. The more I think about it, the more I feel embarrassed and decide to drop the topic myself.

"Woohoo! An exit," Aeri shouts

"Finally," Kayla sighs.

It's not long before Kayla exits the tunnel with me behind her and we find ourselves on another large room with no light at all, but a little more scanning around reveals an exit. I stand up and stretch, a yawn slowly escapes me as well. I stare at the exit for a little and ponder in my thoughts.

"This is definitely a trap," Kayla mutters.

"Yup," I agree quickly.

"Why would this be a trap? We can leave now. The exit is right there!" Aeri complains.

Kayla chuckles a bit and takes out her sword and swipes it down as she rests her free hand on her hip.

"Exactly my dear, it is just right there. This is obviously a trap," she answers.

I look up and notice something moving, a sharp goose bump goes through my spine and I extend my hand to Aeri.

"Lantern please."

She quickly hands it over and I get ready to throw it upwards but stop myself.

"By any chance do you happen to have an extra one of these?" I ask Aeri.

She moves her head sideways.

"I have a lantern," Kayla quickly adds.

"Good," I say and throw the lantern upwards.

Another goose bump goes through me as the lantern lights its way up and reveals the biggest snake I had ever seen in my life. Its eyes shine red and hisses at us loudly.

"Let's have some fun then," Aeri says as she takes out her sword.

"You two are honestly an odd pair," Kayla says softly.

"Stick around, you'll have some fun," I say.

I take out my sword and the lantern crashes against the floor. To my surprise it doesn't go out but instead lights up different trails of something flammable on the ground. Fire rises from the ground separating me from Kayla and Aeri. I can feel the warmth and suddenly feel motivated as some background music kicks in. I hear Aeri laugh loudly and see the snake slither its way down the wall closest to Kayla's and Aeri's side.

I see Aeri jump high and attack the snake from where I'm standing. It slithers away quickly and head towards me at full speed. I ready my sword as it shines bright blue. Just as its a few feet away from me I attack it while shouting out of the top of my lungs. I manage to connect and do some damage. But it quickly cowers away and turns around to head towards the girls again.

"It's going your way again!" I shout.

Through the fire I manage to see Kayla attacking the side of the massive slithering creature as it passes next to her. The snake shakes its tail and manages to hit Kayla pushing her close to the fire. She loses her balance and is about to fall right in the fire but I move quickly and push her away as I dive through the flames. I roll once I'm on the other side and stand up quickly.

My vest caught fire but I quickly swat it away and help Kayla on her feet.

"It's on the ceiling again!" Aeri yells.

I glance up and see it moving right over me and it then quickly descends the wall behind me. Aeri and Kayla both ready a sword skill. Aeri's sword shines yellow and Kayla's a weird pink-ish color.

"Al! Launch me up!"

"What?"

"Just do it!"

I bend one knee and hold my hands together as Aeri starts running towards me. She makes a small jump and places one foot on my hands. I lift her up and send her into the air as she holds her sword with both of her hands. She moves the tip of her sword downwards and begins her drop into the snakes back. I roll forwards just barely avoiding the snake's head and see Aeri drive her sword on the snake's body. She holds on tight and rides the snake while hanging on to her sword.

"She is fearless," Kayla comments.

"Haha, and a little crazy," I add.

The snake goes around the room as Aeri pulls and pushes her sword on its back making great amounts of damage.

"Hey…do the same with me, please," Kayla mumbles.

"You sure?" I come back.

She nods steadily and I nod back.

"Ok, but wait till it turns around."

She gets ready by making some distance between me and her and I look back trying to position myself for her to jump on the snake. Aeri keeps attacking the thing like a savage and I can hear her laugh from across the room. The snake jerks its body towards us and starts moving. I bend one knee again and make the little platform with my hands. I nod at Kayla and she starts running towards me. She jumps into my hands and I throw her up. She lands closer to the head and pushes her sword through the reptile.

I find myself surprised as I haven't dealt much damage to the beast like my companions have. I start running alongside its body and jump on it sword first. My sword gets stuck right on the last section of the snake's tail and it pulls on me violently as I try to hang on. I begin to lose my grip and it suddenly shakes me off its body with my sword still impaled on the tail.

"Shit." I grunt as I roll near one of the walls of fire.

The snake turns around quickly and sees me. I can see it on its eyes. It's coming for me. It hisses violently and moves quickly to me. Just as it's about to reach me Kayla reaches the head and stabs it hard. This makes the snake close its eyes and shake in pain. With the tip of its mouth it knocks me to the ground and depletes a bit of my health. With its eyes closed it crashes against the wall and stops moving.

"Pummel it! Hit it with everything!" I shout.

Not a second passes and I hear the damage effects and Kayla's and Aeri's swords whirr. I get up and run to the snake's tail. I find my sword exactly where I left it and run over the tail. Just as I'm passing by I grab my sword's grip and start dragging it with me without letting it go out of the snake. I start going faster and my sword just glides over the snake's skin. We are close to killing it, its HP barely has ten percent left. Like cutting butter my sword finally reaches to where Kayla is stabbing the beast. I pull it out and Kayla's sword flashes. She drives her sword in and the snake's body turns into light.

We drop a couple of feet and I land on my feet, so does Aeri but Kayla stumbles a bit. I sheathe my sword along with everyone. The fire slowly disappears and the result screens pop up.

"Well, that was a crappy enemy," Aeri says.

"Yeah, it barely attacked us," I say.

Kayla stands up and the thin rapier on her hand turns into a green two handed sword. The weight makes her body move forwards and she struggles to lift it up again.

"You got that cause of the last hit?" I ask.

"I would assume so. It is not my kind of weapon though," she replies.

"If you don't want it, can I keep it?" I request.

She nods and hands the weapon over to me and accepts the trade. I equip it instead of my rapier and lift it with one hand up in the air. Now this feels nice, while it's incredibly heavy. It feels much better than that flimsy rapier. Thankfully its sheath is still set on my hip so I can still maintain my usual sheathing and unsheathing style. A little picky to be honest but I am pleased nonetheless.

"Well time to get out of here," Aeri says as she slaps the back of my head.

"What was that for?!" I scream. "Geez, I hope you two don't become fond of hitting me."

Kayla quickly hides her face and blushes a bit. I think she is reminiscing of the thing that went on inside the tunnel.

"I'm sorry for kicking you, but I had to do it. I know you were staring," she says.

"For god's sake Al! You have a girlfriend and you are staring at other women's butts. Shame on you!" Aeri says.

"She is not my girlfriend!"

Both of the girls start laughing at me and I just walk towards the exit trying to get away from them. The sun shines brightly over the second floor of Aincrad. Just a few days ago the clearing party managed to beat the floor boss. That's an amazing record time to be honest, compared to the time it took us to beat the first one that is. Very few people stayed in Urbus, all the others ventured forth to the third floor. I've heard so far it's like a big forest, but I rather see it myself.

I take a small step forward and the floor collapses under my foot. The exit seems to be located just on the side of the mountain we were trying to go up to before falling in the crevasse. Quickly regaining my balance I manage to stay where I'm standing. Looking down makes it look like a long drop, but the fall isn't vertical. It's more like a big and long slope. I definitely wouldn't want to go rolling down this thing.

"Well, that's odd. You can see Urbus from here," Aeri says as she stands next to me.

"Are you two staying in Urbus right now?" Kayla asks.

"As of now, yes, but we'll be moving to the next floor tomorrow," I add.

She pressed her finger against her lip again. Aeri stretched and yawned loudly as she tested the edge of the exit as well. Some dirt loosened up and fell too so she stood back a little.

"Can I request something?" Kayla mumbles.

I peek down again and scanned around a little for a way down of the mountain.

"Well…go ahead," I reply.

"Would you be so kind as to let me join your group?"

Aeri stares quickly at me with a face I know means no. I know that both she and Daath agree to disagree in this topic. They both say it would be a burden to have more people along. That our group like it is right now its ok. But while they are right when saying it could burden us, I don't see why a girl that knows her way around with a sword could harm us.

"We'll have to discuss that with everyone else. I don't see why you can't join," I say.

Aeri slowly walks behind me and takes out her sword. She stabs the ground behind me and an unnerving sensation brews under my feet. The ground breaks under me and I start sliding down the mountain. I hit more than a few rocks on my way down and finally land on my face when reaching the bottom. Soon enough Aeri comes down gracefully sliding on her feet and kicks me over.

"Are you stupid?! We don't need another person!" she yells at me.

"Aren't ya the hypocritical bitch?" I yell back. "We took you in remember?!"

She kicks me again and I stand up. I grab her hand tightly as she is about to slap me.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"You are just going to complicate things!" she replies.

I hold her other hand as it flies to my face and stop it too.

"If anything, it'll make things easier. What are you talking about?"

"You'll just make things harder on Daa-" she stops herself.

"Huh?" I mutter.

She stops struggling and returns her hands to her side. She looks down and starts walking away in the general direction of Urbus.

"Did I upset you?" says Kayla as she comes down sliding from behind me.

"No, she is just weird…" I sigh, "Anyway, are you coming along?"

She nods and I start walking with her.

"Sorry to pry on this, but I'm rather curious. Do you really have a girlfriend?"

"Well…I don't know to be honest. I like what I have with her right now, but I don't know if I want anything more…"

"Hmm, I see," she mutters.

"Was that all?"

"Yeah, it is just that your partner mentioned quite a bit. So naturally, I became curious," she says.

The walk takes a while but we reach Urbus's main road before sundown. The whole way here I wasn't able to spot Aeri, she must've hauled here quickly. The inn we are staying at isn't far from the main plaza. These streets used to be crowded just a few weeks ago, now they lie almost empty. It is just like they did when this floor was first opened, and before all the people came in to celebrate that is. It feels odd but good at the same time. We are moving on, this game isn't unbeatable. It will take time yes, but it isn't impossible. There is a way out of this death game and we are going to fight our way through it.

I'm about to open the door to then inn when Kayla stops me.

"Are you sure it's ok? I don't want to be a nuisance," she says.

"It'll be fine, you are good with your sword. If anything we need more people willing to engage in combat," I assure her.

I open the door slowly and see Aeri and Daath staring at me from a table close to the door. I walk over slowly and sit down. Kayla treads behind me slowly and sits beside me.

"You know where I stand in this Al," Daath says.

"What harm could one person do to us?"

"It's not about the harm, it's about the responsibility," he grunts. "I know you don't exactly care too much, but the simple fact of having to watch another back. It's mind breaking, man."

"Ok, the fact that I'm an ass most of the time doesn't mean I don't care. I care about you, I care about Elina, and as hard as this might be to believe I care about Aeri. We are a team, we are in this together," I answer.

Aeri looks at me and stares away quickly. Daath breathes in slowly and then exhales.

"Fine, I'm not exactly fond to the idea but…dammit fine," he huffs. "Ok, so what can you tell me about yourself?" he asks Kayla.

She flusters all of the sudden and struggles to find words. I pat her back and tell her to calm down.

"My name is Kayla, I've been solo-ing since day one. To be honest it has been rather lonely and excruciatingly hard. I use light swords and consider myself very agile, although compared to your partner Aeri I would think I'm slow," she says, "It would really be an honor if you took me in. I'll try to help in anything I can and I'm able."

Daath smiles a bit and chuckles.

"I see you are a little nervous. Calm down, ok?" he comments. "I have my reasons for not being too eager with you joining, but I think I'll have to deal with it. We are partners now, I guess."

Kayla smiles and giggles a bit. I smile as well and lean back a little. Our group has a one plus again. Daath words suddenly make sense in my head, but the only thought that comes to mind is that perhaps he doesn't want to get too attached to more people. After all death is looming in every corner and the death of one of us wouldn't only lower morale but it could even break some of us down. I look at him and he is giving me the look he used to give me whenever I understood something he was teaching me. I guess he can read minds as well

I stand up from the table and start heading to the stairs of the inn.

"She is in her room, she said she was very tired," Daath says.

I freeze and can already hear Aeri giggling a bit.

"Alright, thanks," I say.

I make my way up and turn into the long hallway. I bring up my inventory to take my armor off and switch to some cotton pants and a gray shirt. It feels smooth and nice. Elina's door is just next to mine so it's easy for me to locate it. I knock on it a couple of times with no response. I stand in the hallway awkwardly waiting but nothing happens.

I try the knob and it slowly turns, a little surprised I creek the door in and see Elina curled up in her bed. As I'm closing the door to head to my room I hear her voice.

"Is that you?" she mumbles half asleep.

"Sorry sorry, you go back to sleep."

"No…wait...come in," she says.

I go into the room and close the door behind me.

"Are you ok?" she asks.

I smile and nod. She smiles as well and sits up in bed.

"We have a new partner, see?" I say as I point upwards.

She looks up at her HUD and her expression appears bothered.

"Who is he?"

"She," I correct.

"Oh, I though Daath didn't want more people," she says.

"I kind of twisted his hand," I say while chuckling. "You didn't have any nightmares, right?"

She shakes her head slowly as I sit on the edge of the bed.

"Well that's good," I say while smiling.

* * *

><p><span><strong>Later that night<strong>

**Aeri**

"Are you really ok with the new girl?" I mumble while bending over the table.

Our leader sits across from me in the table as he finishes his drink.

"Aeri, you more than anyone knows exactly why I'm against it."

"Yeah…because you don't want to be responsible for more people…but…maybe if you didn't take the role of boss that often may-" Daath slams the table before I'm able to finish.

"What then, huh? Let Eli take the role? Al?" he raises his voice. "As cocky as this may sound, they aren't fit for the responsibilities. Al is too much of an impulsive animal and Eli is a frightened little girl."

"But what about me?" I mutter.

"You…you…shit. I'm sorry…" he says.

I look away and feel very sad for some reason.

"I just want to help you… The burden is not yours alone to carry," I say softly before standing up from my seat.

I start walking away from the table. Tears for some dumb reason start filling my eyes. I brush them away from my face. Since when am I so sentimental?

"Aeri, wait," he says while grabbing my shoulder from behind.

"You are right… But I've been thinking this way because no one ever offered help. I thought myself to be the only one able to keep us safe," he says. "But I am not… It is something we gotta work on together, it is something I'll need help with."

"What are you trying to say?" I answer trying to keep my voice from breaking.

"Help me," he whispers.

I can feel myself smiling and walk away from him a bit as I head to the stairs.

"Is that a yes?" he asks from afar.

I turn and nod at him with a smile.

"It's an effort we'll have to make together. As a team, no?" I say.

He smiles at me gently.

"As a team."

* * *

><p>Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

A big thank you to Donna Hufflepuff for Betareading this chapter.

Meet Kayla she will be another vital part of our little team.

FUN FACT: In the first draft of this chapter Kayla was going to be a big burly man. It's funny how things change.

If you have anything you want to or criticize please leave it in the reviews. I'm open to any kind of feedback.

If you would like to see some rough sketches of our characters please visit my profile for a link to them.

Thank you for reading! See ya soon!

50,000 Words Yay!

Next Chapter: "Reminiscing"


	11. Chapter 11 - Reminiscing

**Chapter 11.- Reminiscing**

**Akari**

**November-6****th****-2022**

Two years, five months, and twelve days since it happened. Since then I find it hard to sleep even harder to wake up…. Sometimes I don't even want to wake up.

"Akari! Wake up, I got a surprise for you!" says my sister from outside my room.

I cover my face up with the blankets in my bed and turn on my side slowly. Please go away dear sister, I beg you. She keeps on knocking and repeating my name. Wake up, wake up, surprise, surprise.

"I know you are awake, hehe. Can I come in? Pretty please?!"

I turn on my back and slowly remove the blanket from my face, the clock on my night-stand says it is still very early. Nine A.M. to be exact. My sister has never been good when it comes to allowing people to sleep peacefully. I rub my eyes slowly and blink consciously a few times before sitting up.

"C-come in," I say in mid-yawn.

She pushes the door in with her back, carrying a small box. The surprise perhaps?

"Rise and shine! I have a surprise!" she says as she sits on my bed.

"Is today something special?" I ask.

"Not at all, I just so happen to buy something I think you'll really like."

I really admire my sister, even after all that has happened she still tries constantly to make me happy, or at the very least to make me feel a little better with myself. I thank her for everything she has done, but I sometimes think she shouldn't even bother. It is sad, yes, but I really think I'm not even worth the effort.

I have to constantly be a hypocrite when talking to her. I have to smile at her compliments, and say thank you for things she gives me that I didn't even ask for. She is such a good person and I'm just inconsiderate I guess.

"What did you buy, Sis?"

She grins at me and turns to fiddle inside the box. She quickly turns around with a metallic helmet in her hands.

"TA-DAH!" she shouts.

"Shh, you are going to wake up mother," I whisper.

"Sorry…haha," she replies.

In her hands, she holds what looks like a big helmet. It has the letters NVG in the forehead area.

"What is this?" I say while taking the thing away from her.

"See, I knew you would be interested."

It feels heavy and cold, taking a closer look just underneath the letters NVG I see something written. Nervegear. It has some tiny led lights on the side close to the letters. POW, WAN, BLK.

"Is this thing like a new gadget for something?"

My sister stands up and twirls around on her foot.

"Close, but no. It's more like a controller thing."

"What do you mean by controller?"

She bends over a little and takes something else out of the box. A small box, almost the size of a dvd casing.

"It's the controller for…drum roll please!" she says and taps rapidly on her stomach. "This game!"

I place my finger over my lips and shrug a bit as she raised her voice. She apologizes and also puts her finger over her mouth. The box she is holding out reads SAO and under those letters Sword Art Online.

"How do I control a game with a helmet?"

"Haha, I was expecting you to ask such question my dear and precious little sister," she says with a weird accent.

I shrug a bit at her name calling and can't help but to look down at the helmet feeling a bit embarrassed. She is just too good.

"You see my dear little sister, you control this game with your brain. Full immersion virtual reality!" she yells.

"Sis, please, your voice," I say softly.

She shrugs and covers her mouth quickly. She can be very silly at times. Full immersion virtual reality, that kind of rings a bell. I guess I must have seen it somewhere when going around the internet.

"This game will kind-of literally let you play with your brain in another body, does that make sense? Haha," she says.

I'm suddenly very interested and even use my hands to help me sit more comfortably.

"So…I would be able to do anything?" I ask.

"From what I have looked up about the game, yes. Pretty much everything."

I suddenly become very very interested. I place the helmet beside me and take away the casing from her hands. It has some info on the back and it says it requires a NerveGear system to work. I find odd that the word is written differently on the box than the helmet itself.

"I already installed the game for you. You just have to calibrate the helmet and you should be able to play it right away," she tells me with a smile on her face.

I smile back a little but do my best to erase said smile from my face. She just did something nice for me. Yet…deep inside me I just feel like I'm wasting her time. Or maybe the reason why I stopped smiling is because I sensed some pity in her actions. My emotions have been a serious mess lately, I really don't know what to think of myself or others lately.

I fiddle around for a few seconds with both the helmet and the casing, I feel pretty excited to be honest. Suddenly as I'm turning and moving the helmet around my sleeves drop a little from wrist. I don't notice at first but my sister is staring at me with sad eyes. Once I do notice I glance at my wrist. More than five straight line scars can be seen, most of them are pretty small but there is one huge that goes over a few of the small scars.

I sigh to myself and then look at my other wrist, which is pretty much the same thing. The only difference is that there are about three scars less on my left wrist. I set the helmet to the side and rub my right wrist softly with my thumb.

"I'm sorry," she mutters, her voice all warped and twisted.

I shake my head.

"It wasn't your fault," I answer.

She sits next to me and hugs me close. About a month back I would've cried and wailed in her warm embrace, but nothing happens now. I do not cry, I do not even feel sad. I return the gesture though, I hug her tightly and breathe out loudly as she squeezes me in her arms.

"I have to go to cram school now though," she says as she leans in to kiss my forehead, "be good, ok?"

I nod slowly and rub my forehead. She leaves my room silently and I sit there on my bed staring at my new playthings. I chuckle to myself a little and pull the box a little closer to me. The only thing remaining inside is a cable. I take it out and inspect it thoroughly. One of the ends is weird, a really weird tip. I grab the helmet from my side and turn it around as I see the hole were the weird cable could perfectly fit in. The other end of the cable is more recognizable, it looked like any other thing I would plug into a wall socket. I suppose it's for charging the helmet then.

"Akari, what are you doing?" says a voice by the door.

I know who is standing by the door, it's my mother. I don't look but instead focus my attention on the NerveGear I'm holding in my hands.

"Are you going to spend all of today in bed, again?" she says with a stern tone.

I don't answer at all. I reach over for the game's box and pretend to read it.

"This is not what your father would've liked of you," she says.

"How do you even know what he would've liked…" I respond.

"What was that?" she says raising her voice.

"You heard me…" I reply.

I hear her take a few steps and a sudden stinging pain spreads over my right cheek. I hold my hand up to my cheek and cover it as I look away.

"You got some nerve, it's like you haven't learned a thing."

"Get out of my room," I mumble.

"What?" she says.

"Get out of my room!" I scream.

Silence fills my room and it is soon broken by the steps my mother takes to get out, she closes the door. I'm alone again. I rub my cheek gently and feel tears flowing out of my eyes. My face hurts a lot. I sob a little and lay face down in my bed for a bit. I find myself exhausted and nap for a little.

My cellphone is ringing loudly. I open my eyes slowly and see it vibrating and ringing in my night-stand. I stretch for it but can't seem to reach it. I push myself up a little and pull myself closer to the edge of the bed. I reach for my phone.

"Hello?! Akari?!"

It's my sister.

"I forgot to tell you, you can't play the game before 1 P.M. Well you should be able to play it now though since it is 1 P.M. right now, haha."

"Why is that?" I ask.

"I'm not sure I just read it online," she says while laughing, "Oh, and one last thing. Your log in and password are the same as in your computer. Have fun playing, I'll see you once I get home."

I press the red button on my phone and place it back on the nightstand. The NerveGear and its cable are still in my bed not too far from me. I sit up and scoot over a little to grab the helmet, stretching my arm a bit more I grab the cable and connect it to the helmet. Reaching the socket was a little trickier, but I manage to do so without needing to get up.

I slowly place the helmet over my head and click the little strap under my jaw. It feels very heavy. My phone rings briefly and vibrates again. I got a text message from my sister.

"I'm so sorry, I forgot another thing.  
>The helmet activates with a voice<br>command, put the thing on and say  
>–Link Start-."<p>

Well that was convenient. I make sure the helmet is secured on my head and speak the magic words.

"Link Start."

My sight goes dark suddenly and then a lot of colors appear before my eyes.

-THE NERVEGEAR SYSTEM WILL NOW BEGIN CALIBRATION-

After reading those words, my sight went dark again and I found myself staring at the ceiling of my room. I must've fallen or something. I guess I should've done his while lying down from the start.

-PLEASE STAND UP AND TAP OVER YOUR SHOULDERS AND CHEST AREA-

A weird feeling goes through my stomach and I look over to my side. The chair is just a few steps away from my bed…but I can't really stand up. I ignore the instructions and just tap my shoulders and chest while sitting up in my bed.

-VERIFIED-

-PROCEED TO TAP THE AREA AROUND YOUR HIPS AND LEGS-

The instructions are making me uncomfortable, but if I want to see what this SAO is all about I'll have to hope the helmet recognizes my legs properly without the need of me having to stand up. I tap all over my hips and then tap over my legs slowly. The message disappears and nothing pops up for a few seconds.

-VERIFIED-

-PLEASE LAY DOWN ON A COMFORTABLE SURFACE-

I lay on my back slowly and other message pops up.

-INITIALIZING-

The bright colors flood my eyes again and suddenly I'm prompted with a log-in screen. Like my sister said I put in my user name and password and another prompt appears.

-CREATE NEW-

I select the option and another thing pops up.

-PLEASE NAME YOUR CHARACTER-

I ponder about it for a few seconds and finally decide to go with name of a butterfly, a pretty one at that. Maybe a little too cliché or girly even for me but I really love how this one looks.

-ELINA-

-IS THIS NAME OK?-

* * *

><p>Crysina here!<p>

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Thanks to Donna Hufflepuff for beta-reading.

This is a very short chapter compared to what I usually write, but it's quite fitting and I also thought a little backstory was in order. Don't worry chapters will only be this short when some backstory comes around. And even then since I got down to revising my whole story, these backstory chapters have gotten longer, more in-depth and interesting.

Please leave any kind of comments, thoughts and or questions in the reviews. If you leave a question I will try to promptly answer it via PM or if you guys want I will answer them on these ANs I have at the end of the chapters in case you are curious about other people's questions.

**ICO:** As of this moment the story has 30 chapters, I post them only once a week because I want to pace myself as I keep writing more chapters. Do not worry I try to keep all my content interesting and even I can realize when it'll be time to end this story. BUT. We are just getting started!

Also would like to thank you all and share with you the fact that all this month of February I have gotten more than 5 views every day, even with some high spikes in between days. I'm very happy about this and thought I should thank you guys or something.

Thank you for reading! See ya next Sunday!

Next Chapter: "Unrequited"


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